Molly chasing goldfish

[pattyren]

Hi to all.

First of all i wish to say thanks for this great board. It really is fantastic, packed with loads of info. I had just bought a 10g tank and everything was going haywire. I started having sluggish fish staying at the surface with the water getting murky and white spots started appearing on my fish. I realised that i had jumped the gun and so decided to see what i was doing wrong. I found out that i had done nothing right!! I read from this forum about fishless cycles, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ich and now after 3 weeks i have managed to set things right. I started doing 25% water changes adding start right every time, added salt 2tsp per gallon (replacing with every water change the amount lost), and increased temp to 86F. Within a week i have no nitrites,ammonia or nitrates and the white spots have all gone except for a few spotes on the mollies tail. I have not done a water change since 4 days and all levels have remained stable. I plan to continue monitoring levels and do a 25% water change very week. After 2 weeks of all the spots falling from the molly, i will decrease temp. Unfortunately i lost 2 guppies and a goldfish in the process but i would be looking at an empty acquarium had i not met this site.

I now have left a male guppy, a clown pleco, a rainbow shark, a goldfish, a white sailfin molly, and a cichlid (i took a photo of it and placed it as my avatar - can you tell me exactly what type it is?).

I now have the fish happily swimming around the tank with vastly improved fish colours and clear water with 0 levels of ammonia,nitrites and nitrates. I have a problem that the molly is chasing the goldfish all day. I have cut down on food (since overfeeding was also one of my problems). Any suggestions why this behaviour. Thanks

 

[sivic]

Honestly your tank is very much overstocked. Not only that but goldfish are coldwater fish that should not be mixed with tropical fish. That cichlid is an angelfish which really needs alot more room than what your providing it in a 10gallon.

Minimum tank sizes:
Angelfish - 30 gallons
Guppys - 5 gallons
Molly - 10 gallon
Rainbow shark - 25 gallons
Clown pleco - 25 gallons

Unless you plan on buying a new tank very soon i'd suggest selling or giving some of your fish away. By the way i got those tank sizes from the link on the top of the page that says species profiles. I'd suggest looking at them before picking fish or searching on google for information before buying.

 

[pattyren]

Thanks for your reply.So you think that the molly chasing the goldfish is due to overcrowding?

 

[Nuriel]

yes, i suggest returning everything except the guppy and replace with a few more guppies. It is fun if you get a couple females and a male, you can see her babies in her dark gravid spot and watch the fry mature, then trade them in for stuff at LFS!!!!

 

[NatakuTseng]

The clown would be fine in the 10 as well. They stay small 3-4inches is usually a fairly large specimen, and are very subdued. I haven't ever seen any aggression out of them. So I'd leave the clown in, just supplement his diet with some algea waffers. The guppies are fine, don't get a female unless you plan on getting 2-3 per male. The males WILL harass the females to death. If it was me, I'd have the one male you have now, and add 3 females to the tank, leave the clown in there, and call it a done deal.

 

[TKOS]

Adding all male guppies will work fine as well if you don't want to deal with what could potentially be a lot of baby fish. And many LFS's won't take guppy fry as they generally have too many and their breeders get upset.

 

[pattyren]

Thanks for all the advice. So basically the molly is being agressive to the goldfish for overcrowding.

I think i will also keep the clown pleco, as NatakuTseng suggested (will keep tank cleaner of algae) and remove the rest. Then i will gradually add guppies as suggested (watching water quality in the process).

If ammonia,nitrates and nitrites stay fine, does a weekly 25% change suffice? And any suggestions regarding food amounts - i feed the current population 2 pinches of flakes daily to avoid overfeeding but they seem hungry. Thanks

 

[NatakuTseng]

Overcrowding isn't nessecarily the reason why the molly was being aggressive, mollies tend to be a fairly aggressive livebearer in general, and if they don't like something, they make sure they know it. I would do 50% weekly water changes.

 

[pattyren]

Overcrowding isn't nessecarily the reason why the molly was being aggressive, mollies tend to be a fairly aggressive livebearer in general, and if they don't like something, they make sure they know it. I would do 50% weekly water changes.

Thanks

 

[reiverix]

I had to move my female molly from my 75g community because it was too aggressive. So I ended up putting it in my 20g with 4 skunk loaches. Now skunk loaches are fairly aggressive themselves but again, the molly is showing her dominance.