Molly

[Alibball10]

Hi. I have had a 36 gal tank since Nov. it was rough with fish casualties. It’s running fine now. Tonight I noticed my gold fist Molly being really aggressive with my black Molly in particular. They are all suppose to be males. The black Molly is not the only one he was picking on. I separated him in a floating breeder box (breeder part taken out) in same tank. I’m not sure what to do. They have been together for a bit. I only added one new fish and snail Friday. Please help.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Can you post pictures of the fish so we can sex them and a picture showing the entire tank?

Can you post a 1 minute video of the molly picking on other fish?
You can upload videos to YouTube and then copy & paste the link here.
If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally so the footage fills the entire screen.

 

[Alibball10]

I have the GD Molly already seperated.. I didn’t think of taking a video before. I can maybe try later today. Here are the pics of the two fish that are the usual targets. I only had a pic of back end of GD Molly (third pic).

 

[Colin_T]

You have 2 males and 1 female molly.
First picture is a male black & white balloon molly.
Second picture is a female black molly.
Third picture is a male black & gold molly.

If the black & gold male is harassing the female and trying to breed with her, she could be getting ready to give birth. But male mollies (and other common livebearers) will harass females all day every day in an attempt to mate with them. This is why I prefer to keep them in single sex tanks (all males or all females). It stops the males harassing the females.

If the black & gold molly is picking on the balloon molly, that is dominating behaviour with the black & gold making sure the balloon molly doesn't try to breed with the female.

In regards balloon fishes, it's preferable not to buy them because they have shorter bodies and their internal organs get squished up in the shorter body and they have more health issues because of that. They also have a shorter life span than normal shaped fish.