Help, Are My Mollies Fighting

Hi, I'm new to fish. My tank is only a few weeks old. I have a 36 gallon tank with 7 mollies (5 dalmation and 2 creamsicles) I also have 7 platys and 2 catfish. Well my dalmation mollies keep looking like they are fighting. They don't seem to harm each other, but it's scary to watch and always seems that the black with white spots one is involved. I think that is the only male. Could it be because my ammonia is way high? (which I am working on rectifying).

 

Hi, I'm new to fish. My tank is only a few weeks old. I have a 36 gallon tank with 7 mollies (5 dalmation and 2 creamsicles) I also have 7 platys and 2 catfish. Well my dalmation mollies keep looking like they are fighting. They don't seem to harm each other, but it's scary to watch and always seems that the black with white spots one is involved. I think that is the only male. Could it be because my ammonia is way high? (which I am working on rectifying).

Livebearers are pretty social fish. If there’s only one male then there really shouldn’t be much aggression. If the fish are just chasing and not harming I wouldn’t worry. I think it’s unlikely it’s an issue more than just chasing. I would be more worried about the ammonia

 

I'm very worried about the ammonia!!! We are working on getting it down. It's not just chasing to me, they really go at it. Like I said it's scary to watch. I don't know how to figure out whether they are male or female. But I have fry so I know some are female. The one I think is a male has two long thin find coming off the tail fin. None of the others have that.

 

I'm very worried about the ammonia!!! We are working on getting it down. It's not just chasing to me, they really go at it. Like I said it's scary to watch. I don't know how to figure out whether they are male or female. But I have fry so I know some are female. The one I think is a male has two long thin find coming off the tail fin. None of the others have that.

What’s your ammonia level at? And what are you doing to reduce it? How much water taking out, how often etc?

 

I just found out last night that my ammonia was high and I tore a ligament in my foot a week ago and am non weight bearing. so as soon as my husband gets home we are going to do a partial water change of 20% Ammonia in like 7.2 extremely high

 

I just found out last night that my ammonia was high and I tore a ligament in my foot a week ago and am non weight bearing. so as soon as my husband gets home we are going to do a partial water change of 20% Ammonia in like 7.2 extremely high

Darn crazy high, why not do a massive water change like a 80%-90%?

 

What's the easiest way to move that much water? Thanks

 

What's the easiest way to move that much water? Thanks

A gravel vacuum and a bucket is a good way. It’s not going to be super quick but you should only need to do it once. It’ll relieve your fish immediately which they surely need at high ammonia levels.

Are you using test strips? You sure ammonia’s 7.2ppm, it’s not impossible but unusually high

 

I used a test strip and the API master test kit. OK, I'll get a gravel vac asap!! Let me scoot over there and do another test.

Oops sorry it's between 1.0 & 2.0 still quite high. I was thinking PH. What should that be?

 

Your pH is good then

 

Your pH is good then

Thanks. So just have to get the ammonia down. Everything else is normal.

 

Regarding your mollies behavior:

You said you think the dalmation is the only male. With mollies, it's important to know what gender mix you have because that will have a large effect on behavior. Mollies are very hierarchical within their genders and are very driven to reproduce. When multiple mollies of a gender are placed together, there will be a brief period of fighting to establish who the boss is but it should not be constant.

Constant fighting or fighting lasting days is usually a sign that there aren't enough females for the males so the Wales become overly aggressive towards each other.

Much rarer, is that the molly may just be an overly aggressive fish. Fish have personalities and some are more aggressive and some are more passive than the average member of their species.

Still, for your tank, a side from the ammonia, it's important to find out what genders your fish are because the gender ratio and gender numbers of a molly group is important.

Second, if you don't have tall plants in your tank, it would be a good idea to invest in them -live or plastic- mollies are mid to top swimmers and prefer to hide behind plants rather than in caves. Sometimes, adding plants to break up line of sight will help lessen molly aggression.

I'm sorry to hear about your foot and hope it heals quickly


I understand ammonia spikes and mollies. Mollies are very dirty fish and will drive up ammonia. I had the same issue with mine before I got it cycled.

This is what I did and it could work for you if your husband is willing to help.

I did repeated 50% water changes repeatedly over 2 days until I got my ammonia down to 1.5 ppm. Then I bought a bottle of tetra safestart and fluval biomedia. 24 hours after my last water change, I put the biomedia in the open area of my hob filter and then poured in enough tss for 30 gallons into 20 gallon tank.

I kept a bucket of water that had been conditioned and left to stand for 24 hours during the first week for any emergency water changes because tss during its first week of being established has issues with any water conditioner during the first 24 hours the wc is in the water but is fine after that.

My ammonia stayed at 1.5 to 2 for the first week which is normal but dropped during the 2nd week and then all I had to do was water changes to lower the nitrate and my tank was cycled.

Here's a link to a great post here on tss

Q & A With Tetra about Tetra SafeStart

Good luck with everything

 

Thanks so much for all the great info!!!

I lost a platy overnight. I'm so heartbroken. I need to fix this and I can't be on my foot. Oh well. My fish are more important. Going to start a partial water change.