Aggressive SailFin Molly?

[cuzzoo3345]

So I ordered a Royal Gramma and it arrived yesterday. I took the day off to be here when it arrived and acclimate it. I left the light off the rest of the day , turned it back on this morning before I was leaving for work. So one of my hermits had something strange and it was pulled up to one of the rock ( by a hitchhiker crab that I believe is a red mithrix crab ). It was my Royal Gramma I was super mad and couldn’t do much as I was already running late for work this morning. The fish was fine when I went to bed last night! I have a orange SailFin Molly , HiFin Red Banded Goby ( that stays in his and my candy cane pistol shrimps cave , because of the Molly I believe ) , a peppermint shrimp , three blue leg hermit crabs that aren’t very big and ten snails. The HiFin stayed at the entrance of his and the pistol shrimps cave for like 3 - 4 weeks. Until the Molly was swimming around their caves opening and now I rarely see the HiFin. That’s what is leading me to believe the Molly killed my RG. Anyone ever experienced this before with a Molly or have any tips? Thanks in advance

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Welcome to Reef2reef.

Sorry you are having troubles. But to answer your question, any fish has the possibility to be aggressive. I have a tailspot blenny who is a jerk to my clownfish... anyways, if its in a small tank, that will increase the aggression. How big is your tank?

 

[cdnco2004]

I have read posts about male mollies being more aggressive. My males have never bothered any fish except other mollies. But I have read about males going after other fish.

 

[cuzzoo3345]

Thank you for your advice! My tank is 20 Gallons has about 13 pounds of rock ( 2 pounds which is KP live rock ) and 20 pounds of sand. The molly was the first fish added , peppermint shrimp was the first thing added after cycle

 

[cuzzoo3345]

Thank you , that’s good to know. I’ll definitely do some research into that. I’m probably gonna rehome my Molly.

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Thank you for your advice! My tank is 20 Gallons has about 13 pounds of rock ( 2 pounds which is KP live rock ) and 20 pounds of sand. The molly was the first fish added , peppermint shrimp was the first thing added after cycle

20g is a bit small, so like I said that is increasing the aggression. Also, putting it first in the tank will increase the aggression,too, as it thinks it owns the tank.

 

[cuzzoo3345]

It is a bit small but it’s my first reef tank and wasn’t sure how it was gonna go! I wish I’d have got a bigger one now!! I’ll definitely keep all that in mind! I was really looking forward to seeing the Molly and RG swimming around my tank

 

[cuzzoo3345]

Finally got this hitchhiker out , he was a little bigger than a quarter and was definitely eating on my RG when I saw it dead before I left for work

 

[cdnco2004]

It is a bit small but it’s my first reef tank and wasn’t sure how it was gonna go! I wish I’d have got a bigger one now!! I’ll definitely keep all that in mind! I was really looking forward to seeing the Molly and RG swimming around my tank

The smaller the SW tank the more difficult it is to maintain as even a small change in water chemistry can throw the entire tank off.

Finally got this hitchhiker out , he was a little bigger than a quarter and was definitely eating on my RG when I saw it dead before I left for work

It eating your RG is not what killed your RG. Its just like a vulture.