Help w/ new fish problems

[NewerFishPerson]

Hello. 

First off a little about my tank. I recently posted about starting a new aquarium. "Help w/ new aquarium" We started working through the process a little , and talked with our fish person at local pet store. Per her advice we added two female mickey platys. We gave them time to adjust and get used to the tank, almost a week. We have one that is a bit bigger than the other. The smaller one hid a lot a first but they seemed to be getting along after a couple of days. Yesterday we added two female gold panda mollies. Was a bit scary at first cause my two female platys were fin nipping them and seemed like a battle going on between them. However then the bigger of the platys seemed to turn on the smaller platy and started defending the mollies. Now this morning the bigger platy keeps chasing away the other platy anytime they get near each other, but when the mollies or the pleco go nearby its fine. They all seem to be kinda chasing and bullying the smaller platy, except for the pleco it's just swimming around doing it's thing. But yet the bigger platy and mollies will swim around and hang together with no issues. Mind you the smaller platy is the one that initiated the initial fighting and bullying when the mollies were first introduced to the tank.

Was trying to go for all females due to having only a ten gallon and didn't want massive fry issues since they are all livebearers. The tank is running with a 20 gallon aqua clear filtration system. We are still in the early cycling stages, but starting adding hardy fish to help everything along. Feeling bad for the smaller orange platy cause all the other fish are swimming around just doing their thing, and this fish just stays hidden behind the heater or in a cave, or around the plants and occasionally comes out to try to nibble on stuff. Fed them flakes this morning and that was ok, they all seemed to get along and eat together . Now they are back to bullying. This fish can come out of its corner but once it starts trying to intermingle it gets chased away or the other platy seems to stare it down while it backs away.

Not sure what to do with my tank that has seemed to turned into a high school and an episode of mean girls. LOL Feeling bad for my poor little orange platy. **Pleco doesn't care about any of them, just doing it's thing. Main problem is just trying to figure out why I have one fish that is now being singled out. It's like my bigger platy all of sudden decided it was a molly and they are singling out the oddball. I literally just watched the two mollies and the platy file together in a line, and they all charged at the other platy. They will even occasionally pal around the tank together. Feeling bad for the poor little platy getting chased around by everyone. All but the pleco just going around doing its thing without a care in the world. The smaller platy hid a lot when we first put them in the tank , so I'm wondering if the other one was bullying already then. 

 

 

[Colu]

There are sorting the pecking order it should quiet down I would just monitor for now 

[CorydorasEthan]

I agree with @Colu. Also, more hiding places might help for the smaller platy to retreat to. Are there any pictures of the tank?

[NewerFishPerson]

Ok. So I did figure out what I think was a bit of the issue. I'm new and still learning, and though I had two female platys. But this morning I've been staring down the female mollies, that an experienced person picked out for me on my request for females. And starting thinking I had two male platys. I took the one that was being bullied to my local fish store, and they verified it was indeed a male, and showed me a female. So I thinking the introduction of females to the tank , even though different species, brought on one being the dominant male. I traded my little orange boy for the girl and got her acclimated. She's been in the tank for almost 2 hours now, and while she was initially hiding , she is now swimming around with the female mollies, and has starting eating. The male is still chasing her off his area, but he's also now starting to become more curious about her as well.  Guess I'll start watching for babies, and be looking to upgrade to a 20 sooner than I expected. LOL  Hope all goes well, and the other calms down, cause he's a really cool Marlboro mickey platy.  ** I also got a cool piece of driftwood and java fern added. So all the fish are going a little crazy right now since I was messing in the tank for a bit.