New Molly Owner, HELP!!!

[Labyrinth22]

I have 1 Black Molly Male and 4 Molly Females (marbles, Lyretails, Black) he seems to be nipping and chasing all the females in the tank? So far no fish are hurt, they just move out of his way a lot. Is this normal? He isn't trying to mate with them he just seems to be outrightedly agressive towards them, what should I do?

Also, I have one Marble Molly Female who is bullying/chasing all the other females, is this common? Should I separate her from the others?

Also, previous to this group of five fish, I lost my other 3 fish to them constantly touching the heater and being burned on the mouth, their mouth would swell and they would die, has anyone heard of this? Why are they attacted to the heater? I am feeding them 2x's a day at least so they are not starving.... ( I lost a mommy that way, 1 day after she dropped 25+ fry ) Is there anything I can do to make the heater less attractive to them?

PLEASE HELP!

Thanks!

[tina1]

Are you mollies having heater troubles too? What kind of fish were your others that did this? I've never had a fish even pay any attention to a heater so I can't really help you out there.

In regards to the mollies, the male chasing is very normal and is mating behavior. They are a very prolific species so watch out! The females will be just fine with the male as you have enough of them so that his attentions aren't being focused just on one. I would return the bullying female though as she will make life hard on the other fish, and if she acts this way with her own species who know what she'd do if you added another species to the tank.

[Labyrinth22]

Hi, thanks for replying!

I have 4 females for the one male in my tank and he chases/nips at all of them.

The agressive female is fine towards the other species (I have two african dwarf frogs and one Bumble bee Goby in the tank) just bullies the molly females.

All the fish with the constant touching heater problems are Mollies. They keep trying to eat the heater which causes the burnt lips, but I feed them constantly so they are not hungry, the only reason I haven't lost anymore mollies is because the heater is now broken.

[3_second_memory]

Hiya,

i have 2 balloon mollies, male and female, 2sailfin mollies, male and female, 1marble female+black male.

2platies, male and female, 7guppies, 2male, 4female, 20+guppy fry+20+ molly fry.

i wrote this so that i can explain the behaviour of mine to gie you reasurance.

The guppies, balloon mollies and platies are in a seperate tank of there own. The Guppy males chase the females endlessly, nipping their tails. The females just swim off.

The mollies are in a comunity tank with tetra's etc.

The sailfin molly can appear a bit aggressive. he was chasing off the other male and female molly and nipping at them. I got the sailfins yesterday, by the way. This morning, i found 20+ molly fry and the male was back to his usual self.

when watching them all this afternoon. the two males were taking it in turns to chase the females, nip them and then breed with them and then move on to the other female.

if she doesnt comply, they keep chasing till they get bored.

their behaviour is normal.

Theyre just getting rambunktious.

It may be that the females are competing for the males attention.

hope this helps.

in tuerms of your heater, my boyfriend has found dead fish once attached to the heater.

in my livebearing tank, i have a heater which has a plastic gard that covers the whole heater to stop the fish burning themselves.

Perhaps your local fish shop would have one that you could put over your heater?
the heater in my community tank is in the filter, inbuilt.

How big is your tank?

do the fish have enough swiming room?

Take care

amy. x

[Labyrinth22]

Thanks, I am beginning to see that this chasing and nipping is a normal behavior, I was getting a little stressed out as I didn't want to hurt the fish. I feel better now.

I have a 10gallon tank for 6 fish and 2 dwarf frogs. I think that is enough room?

I will try the plastic around the heater idea. I live in the states so I am not sure we have that sort of thing. But I will definitely look!

Thanks for everyone's help!!

[t_chelle16]

No, a 10 gallon isn't big enough.

Mollies fall under the 1" of fish per gallon rule. Mollies get around 3" so that's already 18" of fish. Plus your adf's count as 2" each so you need a bare minimum of 22 gallons to house those fish.

Are you positive it's the heater that's causing the problems with their mouths? Do their lips look white and maybe a little fuzzy?

-Chelle

[Tank]

hi, mollies need algae in their diet, is there some on your heater? if there is thats what they are after. try putting algae wafers, cucumber or a bit of lettuce in the tank to see if that distracts them away from the heater.