Do Mollies turn mean?

Question

My tank has been up and healthy for about two months. Until now, everyone has gotten along well. We've even saved fry from two different births that seem to be doing well. Our Molly has now begun to nip at the tail of one of our guppies. I'm not sure if he does it to the others. (The adults each have a teeny tear in their tails, but nothing like the first one.) His tail is completely frayed and MUCH smaller. I didn't notice until yesterday. I didn't know what to do, so I put the molly into our birthing net by himself. (We had previously put a divider in our tank to give the fry more room to grow.) Will the poor guppy survive? Can he heal? Will we have to get rid of our molly? Help!!!

Answer 1

Actually Mollies are a bit mean, but until they get grown aren't big enough to do any damage. The same is true for guppies. So yes, a good sized molly can be a problem child in a tank of smaller fish.

The guppies should be just fine now that you know what was going on. The tail fin will grow back but will take a while. Good eye catching it in time!

You will need to either find a new home for the molly or at least keep it away from smaller fish. Espacially smaller fish with large fins. He would be fine with fast fish like danios or tetras probably.

MM

Answer 2

Yes mollies can get mean. There is a medication you can get at the fish store to help heal the fin on the other fish. You might want to get more guppies that way the mollie will feel out numbered and not be so mean

Answer 3

The Molly's must be the one to nip at the guppies, if you had no trouble before then it must be the Mollys.Mollys are friendly so there might be another one that is doing it.With the tail being long and color full it draws other fish to them.If you like the guppies put them in another tank.This way you can enjoy both.

Answer 4

I have had a molly turn before as well and ironically it was on a guppy! My solution was to have two tanks, one for the guppies and one for the mollies. Good luck!