Don't know what to do with bully fish :(

Jun 29, 2015
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somewhere with your dad
#1
Hi, I just got two Balloon Belly Mollies 3 days ago. They live in a 5.5 gallon tank and one of them recently had 5 baby fishies, so I put them in a breeders net for now until my friends sister can come over and adopt them (I dont have room for them). One of the fish (Tiffany) chases the other (Nicky) around and bites her tail, bullying her. Now Nicky just hides behind plants and doesn't even come out for food anymore... I tried moving Tiffany to my moms fish tank with her beta fish, the beta fish was nice and didn't fight her, but Tiffany seemed to be stressed out in the tank, hiding and whatnot. I felt bad that now both my fish seemed to be stressed, so I moved Tiffany back in with Nicky, but putting a tank divider in between them. I don't like having the tank divider because now they both have small spaces on each side, and since I have baby fish in a breeders net on one side, its even more crowded on one side.
Anyways, my questions is, should I keep them both in the tank and just hope Tiffany will stop bullying Nicky? Should I leave up the divider and let them adjust to the small space? Or should I move Tiffany back in with my moms beta and hope she adjusts there...? I just want all my fishies to be happy ):
 

CAPSLOCK

Elite Fish
Jul 19, 2004
3,682
33
48
39
Cape Cod
#3
Part of the problem is that mollies are a fairly large fish, and 5g just isn't enough space for them. You can try adding plants (real or otherwise) to break up the lines of sight and provide more hiding spaces for them.

Can you upgrade to a 10g tank? The equipment that you already have should work well enough on a 10g or the 5g, and the extra space will help reduce aggression between the two. Or, maybe you could swap them out with something that needs a bit less space. There are dwarf platies that have that same look as a molly, but stay much smaller and would be happy long term in a 5g tank. Or a few male guppies (which also wouldn't overpopulate the tank by reproducing).