# New Tank day 5 : Aggression



## kaybee (Aug 12, 2005)

I bought a 10 gal last Monday with 5 fish; 1 sunburst wag platy, 1 red dalmation molly, 1 black molly, 1 dalmation lyertail molly and 1 silver lyertail molly. I bought them from Fish First at the store where he works!

Anyhoo.......at first the Dalmation lyertail molly was the largest and seemed the most aggressive. On day 2.5 the platy and the red dalmation went after it and it finally died later that day :-( Now it is day 5, the red dalmation had seemed kind of lame lately with the platy and silver lyertail molly picking at it some over the past few days.....tonight the silver molly finished it off :-(

and now there are three. Is there something I may be doing wrong? I'm using Stability. I am using a bit more than the prescribed amount because we have well water...and I read that you cannot over do it with the product...though I'm not using too much extra...1/2 capful extra maybe. Both of the deceased were the dalmations....they had the white spots.....am I not feeding enough? Do they see the spots as food? Maybe a dumb question...but I'm just wondering?

Kay


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

You probably aren't doing anything wrong, sometimes you can get a bad egg with mollys. You can pick up more fish tomorrow or whenever you are in town. Check which sex is left for the mollys. The one picking on everyone might be a male and what he might be trying to do is either 1) weed out the competition for females or 2) trying to mate with the females so much that they die from stress. If the next batch doesn't work, we can exchange that one that is picking on the others for a different one. Hahah, of coarse a molly has to go and prove me wrong when I said they aren't too aggressive. I put my money on it that its the black molly that is the aggresser though.


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## garfieldnfish (Jan 18, 2005)

I would not add any more fish until your tank is finished cycling. It looks to me that you added too many fish too fast. I would not have added more then 2 fish to cycle a 10 gal tank. Once the tank is cycled I would only add one fish per week until you got the number where you want it.
I only have one molly and she hitched a ride in the bag when I bought a pleco. She was just a tiny fry then but I kept her in a plant tank until she got big enough to move in with my glolights. That was fine for a while until she got almost as big as the glolights, then she started to nip on them constantly and I moved her in with my skirt tetras. A few month later she started picking on them as well. I moved her temporarily in my 75 gal with my tiger barbs, where she learned how it could be on the other side of getting picked on. She is now in with the skirt tetras again and currently behaving. In my limited experiencce with mollys I believe they can get pretty bossy. But she is the first fry I ever raised and I grew pretty fond of her.


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## kaybee (Aug 12, 2005)

Thanks for the input! Actually.....the black molly spends most of it's time in the castle. The black dalmation was the 1st aggressor but he was the first to be "eliminated" by the platy and the red dalmation. Next the silver lyertail molly became the aggressor and "eliminated" the red dalmation.
The platy, the black molly and the silver lyertail are left. 

Heh, this is the first aquarium I've had since the internet came along......I'm having a blast so far and learning so much from you guys! Thanks!

I'll probably see ya in a few weeks, Fish First  

Kay


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

Mollies are the worst fish when it comes to cycling. Salt is the best stress killer.


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## kaybee (Aug 12, 2005)

Salt??? 

Kaybee


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## Ownager2004 (Apr 4, 2005)

aquarium salt to be more precise.. dont use table salt... Read up on the internet before doing anything with salt 
Also dont overdue it since you have platies in with your mollies if you decide to add salt.


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

:roll:. Sorry, it looks like you've got a lot to learn about mollies.


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## kaybee (Aug 12, 2005)

Cichlid Man said:


> :roll:. Sorry, it looks like you've got a lot to learn about mollies.


Haha...to say the least! :lol: 

Kay


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

Stability should nill the affects of the "cycle," (I've found this product is pretty good and I sell about 4 bottles a day to people who just don't want to wait and take the risk, I always recommend using it with an almost completely stocked tank because if you don't the culture that you are adding dies in the tank) Let me remind you Kaybee that you aren't doing anything wrong here. 
although mollys can be aggressive they usually stick to conspecifics. I'm a little bit surprised that it's not just one molly dominating the tank though. But in this hobby a lot of things are hit or miss. You can add salt if you would like though, mollys love it, platies not so much but they will like a bit in the tank. 1 tbs per 10 gallons I would go with.


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

I never had much luck with mollys always too aggressive


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