zamosangel

Hi there, my name is Jemma and i have a lil problem, i have just brought some fish today to go into my new tank, the lady in the fish shop suggested the ones to get so i got 2 micky mouse fish, 2 yellow mollies and 2 black mollies but this is my problem, one of the micky mouse fish is attacking the rest of the fish and now one of my black mollies is attacking the other black mollie.
they have all gone into the tank at the same time so i cant understand whats gone wrong.
Can anyone help me

Jem

Marc

Sometimes male livebearers (mollies and platys, the fish I think you have - are livebearers. they give birth to live young) will pick on females.

sirdarksol

Welcome to the forums.
Some forum members have had luck giving their mollies "Time outs" where they are separated by putting them in a breeder-box in the tank for a bit. Nobody has any idea of why this works, but it seems to with mollies.
Also, do you have hiding places, such as patches of plants (either real or plastic), or decorations that have tunnels through them? These will help the picked-on fish find escape from their tormentors.

Now, if I may take a moment. I'll try not to preach, (actually, I'm just trying to save you some tough problems and heartache in the near future) but I've got a few questions/comments.
First of all, how big is your tank? With the fish you've got, I hope you've got at least a 20g tank, or there will be too much waste being produced for the tank size.
Second, did you cycle your tank? Check http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm if you don't know what the cycle is. Even if you did cycle your tank, you're going to be in for a bit of a rough spot having added six fish all at once. If you didn't, it will be very hard work (though not impossible) to keep all six mollies alive and happy.
Third, did the lady at the pet shop give you all males or all females, or did she just grab whatever mollies she could get her net on? Mollies are prolific breeders, and will overpopulate your tank if the molly fry have any place they can hide from their parents (who are cannibalistic).

If any mistakes have been made, do not feel bad. You talked to a specialist about it, and she's made at least one mistake (stocking a tank with six fish at once). As I said, I don't want to preach, but if any mistakes have been made, it will be easier to jump on them before they grow into real problems. If you are not a novice at the hobby, if you have the proper tank size and cycled and everything, I apologize, and feel free to ignore me.
Good luck with your problem mollies.

Edit: When posting about a specific species, such as mollies, using the "Mollies" section of the board will probably draw better responses, as the people who love mollies will be watching that board like hawks. It's likely that this will be moved to that section once a moderator sees it.

COBettaCouple

Livebearers do best when you have at least 3 of each kind, it helps establish a pecking order that doesn't have 1 picking on the other all the time. if you get males and females, you want 1 male to 2 females.

welcome to fishlore.