shipperfey

Ok, I need some help...

I bought a small-ish goldfish tank for my desk at work (2 gallons). Went to Petsmart and I fell in love with some tiny mollies - they weren't the regular kind, one was black (female) and one was orange (male) and they were much smaller than the other mollies (ETA: now i know they were guppy tail mollies). I hadn't quite cycled my water but added water conditioner to the tap water and floated the baggie for awhile, turned on the filter, etc. However, the next day, the male was dead. No bloating, no nothing, but I do admit the cycling process wasn't complete and I was too eager to add them to my tank, plus I was feeding them too often.

We took the leftover female out and put her in a tank with a betta that has a super good filter and water from a 50-gallon tank (from my cubemate). They didn't fight for a while, and I basically added some more conditioner, turned the filter on ultra-high and left it cycling for 5 days. My friends added my fish back to my tank after a close encounter with the betta, but we decided she was too lonely and went back to Petsmart.. and I found out they had none left from that batch (which made us believe it was a bad batch or something).

Ok, now with the current situation: I added a cave and added 2 black mollies (male, regular size), one female orange plumetail molly, and a baby pleco (who I figure won't grow in this tank). Well, they all did ok, but then the original mini-black molly died, and the biggest black molly started bullying the leftover female... At one point, the female, the other black male and the pleco all grouped up in the cave and wouldn't come out, afraid of the bully.

I was considering a time out for him (possibly with the betta) but I fell in love with a small female mickey-mouse/plumetail molly (it has the mickey mouse and a plumetail, so it's kind of weird) and ever since we added her and a new cave, the bigger guy stopped bullying. He just does this cute dance next to the females.

They're all small, the big one is barely an inch, and I know my tank is quite small, but do you think they will be ok in there with plenty of hiding spots, constant care and attention? I'm probably going to get a thermometer and a pH meter to keep an eye on the conditions, but everyone looks happy now.

Also, how often can I feed them? Everyone is telling me every 2 days to prevent overfeeding, but people here seem to favor feeding them a few times a day... I have some flake food/freeze dried bloodworm mix and I'm also adding algae wafers 1-2x weekly (which the mollies nibble on as well).

Any input would be appreciated...

Chief_waterchanger

No. First of all you're severly overstocked as it is and I would suggest either buying a larger tank or returning fish. Most mollies get to 3 inches. So 3 of them would fit in a 10 gallon tank nicely. (they should be kept in trios of 1 male to 2 females to prevent males from harassing the females to death) NO plecostomus of ANY kind should be kept in a 2g alone, much less with anything else. Common plecostomus gets to 18 inches, need atleats a 55g tank to have enough room just to turn around. Any of the smaller plecostomus need atleast 10-20g by the time they're sexually mature (1yr in most cases) and need atleast a 20g by the time they're full grown. Your fish WILL NOT survive in their current tank for very long. Their bioloads will overwhelm them and probably poison them. (bioload= uria, fecal matter, and other waste products such as ammonia). It is cruel to the fish to keep them in that situation, honestly.