Help me enjoy my black mollies more

[meadeam]

I am very annoyed with my black mollies and kind of wish I hadn't put them in a community tank.  They aren't attacking anyone that I am aware of, but they just have such odd behavior.  My tetras and rasboras school nicely mid-water, the cories do their thing on the bottom, the pleco hides in her log.  But the mollies... they're always darting and diving into the plants, crashing into things and each other.  Whenever someone gets near the tank it's sheer panic.  This batch were born in my tanks, so although they've been moved lately, they have always been in the same house.  I'm hoping they settle down eventually.  I have 10 total, and I think I have too many males; they appear to be roughly equal to females in numbers.    I don't want them to reproduce, but I loathe trying to move them again as they will be nearly impossible to catch  in my heavily planted tank.  I just regret putting them in there.  

Mollies haven't done well in my water, and I wouldn't have them anymore if they weren't so prolific.  I think my pH is too low.  I've raised it to around neutral with crushed coral.  They annoy me, but I'm trying to care for them properly.  I might need a reliable fry eater though so I don't have them in perpetuity.  

[TheSwissAquarist]

Apistogramma completely destroy young fry numbers. Apart from them puffers occasionally eat fry, but GBR work well

[Anjum]

I get it. I've found, more than how a fish looks, how they act & interact in the tank is more important to my enjoyment of them. 

So you have some decisions to make. Firstly, I think it's fine to try & adjust the parameters, add a fry predator, and give it some time. The mollies might just need some time to settle down. The tank might reach a point of equilibrium that you enjoy. 

But if it doesn't? Or if you're already there, there's nothing wrong with rehoming or taking them to your LFS. I'm speaking as much to myself here, I'm going through it with a SAE, maybe both, that need to go. I simply don't have the tank space for the one. The other, I could try to keep, but it's just not the fish I thought it was going to be. My bad, I didn't do enough research. I feel terrible though because I got them, I committed to them. Live & learn. Hopefully they can go on to a better tank & someone who can appreciate them. 

[meadeam]

Yeah, I'll give everyone some time to settle in.   I think they are already doing a bit better.  I really like the tank otherwise. 

 

[drewzero1]

Personally I've found I like mollies for exactly those reasons: they're very curious and check everything out, nibbling algae on plants and picking bits of food off of the substrate, and it's fun to watch them bumbling around all levels of the tank. (I have cories in with mine and have realized they're probably not necessary, the mollies pick food off the bottom just fine.) Schooling fish just don't have as much personality, and many will only eat food when it's in the top or middle of the water column.

In my initial molly adventure I was able to finger-train them at feeding time so the adults would swim right into my hand. I've never had a friendlier species of fish.

I'm into my second attempt at mollies and if I found myself with too many males, I'd probably catch a few males and give them away to even out the ratio.

[meadeam]

I do need to remind myself that I liked these fish to begin with.  What I am realizing is that I had a vision for this particular tank, and the mollies weren't conforming to it.  They are already much more adjusted though.  I do think I need to catch out a couple males, or add 2-3 females though to lower the stress level and add some more color.   I guess this tank is a molly tank even though I planned on something else.   The good news is that so far, they only seem to be bothering each other.  They aren't chasing the other fish.

This morning when the lights came on the pleco was up on the glass, which I've never seen her do in the 2 years I've had her.  She has a favorite piece of hollow driftwood she stays in almost all of the time, only occasionally coming down to the substrate for an algae wafer.  Hopefully her being up on the glass is a good sign.

[PineSong]

Taking care of aquariums is work and you should be rewarded by having the kinds of tanks that you can enjoy. If mollies don't do it for you, there's no shame in rehoming them and sending them off to live with people who do want them. I love my mollies but want zero reproduction so I keep males and females in separate tanks and if I only had one fishtank, I would not feel bad at all about sending all the female mollies to live somewhere else. 

 

 

[meadeam]

On 9/21/2022 at 9:37 PM, PineSong said:

Taking care of aquariums is work and you should be rewarded by having the kinds of tanks that you can enjoy. If mollies don't do it for you, there's no shame in rehoming them and sending them off to live with people who do want them. I love my mollies but want zero reproduction so I keep males and females in separate tanks and if I only had one fishtank, I would not feel bad at all about sending all the female mollies to live somewhere else. 

 

 

I've since started enjoying the mollies.  When this was (briefly) mostly a tetra and rasbora tank, it was very peaceful.  The mollies add some chaos, but it actually works since they tend to be in the plant canopy, while the schooling fish are in the open water.  I do need to keep reproduction down, so that will be an issue at some point. I'll be adding another tank in the not too distant future, but I may indeed end up rehoming some mollies.

[Flumpweesel]

I got mollies to keep with my murderous Krib so far they are fair to boisterous to take much notice of the krib and therefore made that tank more enjoyable, I have similar debates as you over my rosy barbs and SAE's in my main tank periodically but suspect I'd miss the movement if I moved them. 

I am hoping the krib will help with population control  ( or maybe I'll move the Barbs)