Aggressive male black molly!!

[valerie_]

I recently bought 4 mollies, 3 female and 1 male. Up until this past week, there haven't been any issues. They share a 20 gallon tank with 2 small tetras and a cory catfish. In the past week, I have noticed the male molly constantly chasing and harassing the females, to the point that they girls have marks on them from him. My question is should I remove him from the tank, either temporarily or permanently? I have 2 other tanks, 1 ten gallon with 4 small tetras and a few minnows and another 20 gallon with a bala shark, a rainbow shark and a small algae eater.

 

[BettaGal]

I'm no expert and haven't had mollies, but personally, if they got marks on them from him messing with them, I'd say take him out and put him in another tank. Someone else can pitch in and suggest something, but I'd say move him and let the ladies heal up.

 

[water12]

I had the same problem with a black Molly I used to have. He harassed 2 platies I had, flaring, chasing, and refusing to let them swim. Due to the aggression I sold him to my lfs.I personally wouldn't put him with any smaller fish like your tetras, but you could try it and see if its just the female mollies that have gotten him riled up.

 

[Anthym]

I would look at re-homing your male. I've never had any problems with my Mollies but then again you do have cases where you get an aggressive one every now and then.

Side track I know but they do have a high bio-load my friend so I think you may be overstocked anyway. I would suggest that your Mollies need at least a 30 gallon to really thrive which may be part of your problem too.

 

[Ursi]

Ive found with my mollies that when I had this problem I needed more females, though by the size of your tank I wouldn't advise that. My mollies are in with tetras, and they don't bother them. If I were you id try putting him into a different tank, or rehome him if the females are marked from him

 

[chrismiller21]

Ive found with my mollies that when I had this problem I needed more females, though by the size of your tank I wouldn't advise that. My mollies are in with tetras, and they don't bother them. If I were you id try putting him into a different tank, or rehome him if the females are marked from him

Agreed. I had a agressive male. I added more females and it was basically 8 to 1. He then turned on my Gold Gourami's. I added another male and it tonned him down a bit but I still had to get rid of him. He would also try to mate with everything in the tank at time even the gouramis when he wasn't picking on them. I also had 4 dalmation female mollies that didn't take any crap from him either. They usually beat the crap out of him lol. But that one male just messed with the general happiness of the tank. He eventually went bye bye.

 

[valerie_]

So should I put him in a tank by himself? he doesn't bother the tetras or catfish in the current tank, which is a 30 gal. actually. I messed up when I posted it as a 20 gal. 2 of the female mollies are speckled with lightish spots where he has been butting against them. They aren't seriously injured but I don't want them to be hurt at all.

 

[Rachelw]

I had that same situation before. I moved mine to another tank with my big fish. After about a month in there I moved him back to the other tank and has good as gold ever since.

 

[chrismiller21]

The sad thing is, most people with a problem like this may not have extra tanks to switch fish around in. But sometimes fish can't be retrained. My aggressive molly became a feeder. It broke my heart, but I did all I could and he would not settle down. I won't set up another tank for a molly nor will I ruin my reputation with my lfs by bringing in my mean fish so they can terrorize their tanks either so something has to give. Save and work with one fish so that he may kill or harm 3-4 other fish? And price is also a factor. Sometimes Mollies in my area are a buck or cheaper and fancy guppies are worth more. I know some will not agree with this, but I personally will not kill or harm other fish to work on 1 if I have exhausted all my avenues. Sometimes they just can't be helped.