Red Swordtail not taking well to new tankmates

[Richalds]

Hello, ive got a 29g setup that had 2 angelfish and 2 red swordtails in it which cycled the tank for a good 2 months. Recently i purchased 6 molly's, 3 silver 3 black. Now when i introduced them into the tank the female swordtail is not liking them very much. she is CONSTANTLY chasing them around and bullying them. Id assume this is territorial behaviour and not a big deal but im wondering how long shell keep this up for? The angelfish couldnt care elss about the enw mollys

She i keep the tank light or turn off the light?


Thanks!!

[Abbeys_Mom]

I'd keep the lighting the same. I might take her as long as a week to settle down, or she may not settle at all. Make sure the other fish have places to hide so they don't get stressed. If it's just on fish doing the harassing, you can always try moving her to another tank for a bit, then re-introducing her. Some times that works for territory issues. I would try waiting a bit first.

[Cichlid_Man]

Hi,
Abbeys Mom has it right.
I would just wait it out for a few days.
Maybe longer. In the meantime I would leave everything as is as far as light, and if you don't have another tank to move the swordtail into, you may want to try and move some decorations around. Re-arrange the tank.
Sometimes this throws fish off a bit and they all start as if they were just introduced into the tamk.

[Richalds]

Thanks guys for the info, they seem to be adjusting slowly but i ahve another question. I noticed one of my black mollys has a HUGE stomach, very very noticeable, my best guess is she is pregnant. What do I do? I've never had fry before. And I'm not sure if I want anymore mollys actually.. i don't know what to do...

Ive heard that the angelfish will eat the baby mollys. Is this true?

[kimmers318]

If you don't want the molly fry don't do anything....chances are most of them will get eaten if they aren't protected. Sad, yes, but also yummy food for all of the other fish, not just the angels. I have found with my previous mollies and now my platy's, a change in environment, or stress from tank changes, redecorations etc usually cause them to drop their fry pretty quickly so I imagine you will see babies pretty soon. Did you know they can hold their fertilization process for I believe up to 6 months and can give you babies the entire time even if they never see another male! That can add up to alot of mollies!

[Abbeys_Mom]

If you do want mollies, move the female into another tank with lots of hiding places for the fry, and when she is done "birthing" put her back in you tank. The mother may eat some of the babies, but it is a survival of the fitest thing. I have always found that the amount of fry that are eatten equals the amount that wouldn't make it if you use a breeding trap so they all make it into the tank.
It's a pretty neat thing to see, and the babies are cute. Mollies are great fish, because you never need to restock your tank :)
I started 10 years ago with a bag full of feeder guppies and a fancy tail female guppy, breed them and worked my way up through store credit to having a 55g with some pretty expensive fish. In the end what started as $2 worth of fish ened up as over $150 worth of fish.

[Richalds]

haha thats great abbeys_mom :) and thanks everyone for the advice.

Do most stores buy and sell fish? I've never heard of that. So technically you could breed fish and just sell or trade them back to the store?

[Abbeys_Mom]

It wasn't a money exchange, just stock for stock. I started out making a deal of 3-1. 3 guppies at $3 each bought a fish worth $3. Mollies at $4, 3 mollies, for a $4 fish and so on. Every once and a while I would just give them a bag of fancy gupppies for free. In the end I was trading in Flowerhorns, Torpedo Barbs and other larger fish.