Black Mollies

[Coyote5]

Picked up 3 black mollies yesterday from the lfs. Got 1 male and 2 females.

here is my question... there is 1 female that seems super dominant... chasing the male and the other female all over the tank... however it could care less about the 2 platties in there.. what gives? anybody have any ideas?

 

[Vircomore]

Few possibilities: (Black Molly owner myself)

1. What size is your tank?

2. Did all 3 of them come from the same tank at the LFS?

3. Was the LFS tank filled with ONLY Black Mollies?

4. If #2, was the tank separated by Male / Female? Or were they co-ed at the LFS?


- Many times, if Female Black Mollies are kept together, but without contact from healthy males - they will develop a dominance among their "sorority". Usually once the male tries to mate with her enough, she'll calm down.

- OR, she may already be pregnant. Females will become naturally dominant when they're eating for 40 instead of 1.

- If she looks like she's causing harm to the other 2, you may need to separate her from them in another tank, to give her time to cool off.

 

[Coyote5]

Vircomore,

To answer your questions
1. The tank is a 10g with the 3 mollies, and 2 platties.
2. All 3 came from the same tank.
3. The tank was ONLY black mollies
4. The tank was co-ed.. I made sure the guy got me 2 females and 1 male.. It took him a while, In fact I had to sex them for him.. LOL

I guess I will just observe and see. The 10g could be temporary or permanent I havent decided yet. But either way its going to be a molly/platty species tank.

 

[JohnPaul]

How much does the tank have in the way of decor/plants? It won't necessarily solve the problem completely, but breaking up sight lines so that the other fish aren't constantly in her field of view could certainly help.

 

[Coyote5]

2 decor's and 1 tall plant. Not crowded but its pretty busy.