Tiny Terror

SeaHorse said:

I'm sorry you are having troubles! Are you sure this new fish is a Female?? Can you post pics for us? We'd need to see the anal fin.
This sounds like Male behavior... pestering the females... and possibly challenging other males.
What size tank is this? Molly's get big and every Molly I've had has had an attitude problem... I prefer Swordtails for that reason. Platies are more docile too. Tank size has a HUGE bearing on what to keep and who to keep together. Are some Molly species more bossy than others I wonder too!?

Click to expand...

Sorry for the photobomb lol:


Yes I'm sure it is a female. The guy at the shop had no idea -.-
It's actually surprising since females really don't usually go at it with others. Especially since Molly's are usually very docile creatures. I've never had a problem before.

In my adventures with keeping platies, I've learned a whole lot about their behavior that documentation actually seems to be lacking. And from what I've read, todays pet Mollies, Platies and Guppies are so interbred that most of the ornamentals share the same traits of the different species. My platies are no where near what I would consider to say - "peaceful". I mean that they might be peaceful with other totally unrelated species, but with each other they are anything but docile and peaceful.

I had 2 big dominant male platies, and I thought I had enough females to balance it out. But instead, the 2 males would spar and chase each other. It got to the point I had to move one to a different tank. So now I have 1 dominant male in the big tank, and even when I put a mirror in there to experiment a little. That male will threat display and everything with his own reflection. And this is a platy! And the females seem to have their own likes and dislikes within their group. And this purpleish hi-fin female I have, the dominant male just does not like her at all for whatever mystery reason and he always bites and chases her away.

These type of fish are social "shoaling" fish, I read. But shoaling is different than schooling. They like to be in each other's company, but not in a huge cohesive unit (like those nature shows you see on TV).

I guess if the fighting gets too bad you can try a tank divider (if possible)?