Hi everyone, I’m new here and am hoping I’m posting this in the right place.
Some backstory:
Years back I took over a friend’s aquarium and the fish in it. I was very interested in fish and they wanted to find them a better home. They told me there were Black Mollies in there and I was very excited, I couldn’t see them because the aquarium was just black from algae. When I got home and got it all cleaned up I eventually counted over 50!!! Black Mollies in the small aquarium. So I quickly had to upgrade everything, the aquarium, the filter and everything else with it. I got about a 150 liter aquarium for them, but there were still too many mollies and they just kept producing more and more babies. Then my local fish store keeper suggested getting a ropefish to help with keeping the population low. The ropefish would eat the fry and in that way I could let nature deal with it, which was my preference over selling them. They only had one ropefish and I found out only later that they are usually kept in groups. However even if I wanted to get more ropefish I didn’t want to overcrowd the aquarium any more, so I kept it as it was. My ropefish was super happy, chilling under a hollow piece of drift wood and swimming around the aquarium happily. My Black Molly population decreased with the help of the ropefish and as the older mollies died over time from old age/fighting due to too many males/disease and all the sad stuff that comes with it, now years and years later I am left with two black mollies. One is a small male and one is a huuuge female. I put the male in a different 150 liter aquarium and kept the female in the aquarium with the ropefish. So, this left the aquarium with only two fish, the ropefish and the black molly. And I thought this was a nice moment to get a buddy for my ropefish.
I drove about two and half hours today to get the “buddy”. But after acclimating the buddy to the aquarium…they started fighting. It might be stupid but I never expected it, neither for it to be this wild. Before deciding to get a buddy for my ropefish I read up on it a lot and had the idea that they would peacefully slither around together. Of course some form of dominance can be expected to sort out their roles, but man, I am scared one of them will be dead in the morning. I cannot read much about this anywhere on the internet, so I would love to know what you guys think (especially people with similar experiences). Apparently it’s better to keep either 1 OR 3 but not 2. However I think having 3 of them will be too much for the size of my aquarium and I doubt they will suddenly be best buddies. My original ropefish is a female by the way and the “buddy” ropefish is a male. It’s now night but if I have to I’ll do whatever to get them to just be cool with each other for a sec. I’m letting them handle this a little bit but if they keep going I’m thinking I’ll have to put the “buddy” in his own aquarium (the other 150 liter one is filled with shrimp and tiny rasboras, so doesn’t seem a great fit).
Does anyone have any advise???
I would love for them to be ok with each other but I’m fearing I’ll have to rehome this buddy.
Will they be okay after a couple of hours or should I seperate them immediately? In the beginning they were simultaneously nipping at each others tails. Then they actually started attacking the rest of each other’s bodies.
Only when I drop food in they chill out shortly but they’ve had enough and I cannot give more now. They have one big piece of hollow driftwood with a lot of plants on it in the centre of the aquarium, which the female ropefish always chills under. Then there’s a tunnel with plants on it that they can fit entirely in. There’s one more big cave that they can go in but a little bit more curled up. And there’s one more small piece of driftwood that’s more of a coverage. There’s a lot of plants and a lot of very long vallisneria spiralis.
P.S. they don’t pay any attention to the female black molly, it’s just directed towards each other.
Some backstory:
Years back I took over a friend’s aquarium and the fish in it. I was very interested in fish and they wanted to find them a better home. They told me there were Black Mollies in there and I was very excited, I couldn’t see them because the aquarium was just black from algae. When I got home and got it all cleaned up I eventually counted over 50!!! Black Mollies in the small aquarium. So I quickly had to upgrade everything, the aquarium, the filter and everything else with it. I got about a 150 liter aquarium for them, but there were still too many mollies and they just kept producing more and more babies. Then my local fish store keeper suggested getting a ropefish to help with keeping the population low. The ropefish would eat the fry and in that way I could let nature deal with it, which was my preference over selling them. They only had one ropefish and I found out only later that they are usually kept in groups. However even if I wanted to get more ropefish I didn’t want to overcrowd the aquarium any more, so I kept it as it was. My ropefish was super happy, chilling under a hollow piece of drift wood and swimming around the aquarium happily. My Black Molly population decreased with the help of the ropefish and as the older mollies died over time from old age/fighting due to too many males/disease and all the sad stuff that comes with it, now years and years later I am left with two black mollies. One is a small male and one is a huuuge female. I put the male in a different 150 liter aquarium and kept the female in the aquarium with the ropefish. So, this left the aquarium with only two fish, the ropefish and the black molly. And I thought this was a nice moment to get a buddy for my ropefish.
I drove about two and half hours today to get the “buddy”. But after acclimating the buddy to the aquarium…they started fighting. It might be stupid but I never expected it, neither for it to be this wild. Before deciding to get a buddy for my ropefish I read up on it a lot and had the idea that they would peacefully slither around together. Of course some form of dominance can be expected to sort out their roles, but man, I am scared one of them will be dead in the morning. I cannot read much about this anywhere on the internet, so I would love to know what you guys think (especially people with similar experiences). Apparently it’s better to keep either 1 OR 3 but not 2. However I think having 3 of them will be too much for the size of my aquarium and I doubt they will suddenly be best buddies. My original ropefish is a female by the way and the “buddy” ropefish is a male. It’s now night but if I have to I’ll do whatever to get them to just be cool with each other for a sec. I’m letting them handle this a little bit but if they keep going I’m thinking I’ll have to put the “buddy” in his own aquarium (the other 150 liter one is filled with shrimp and tiny rasboras, so doesn’t seem a great fit).
Does anyone have any advise???
I would love for them to be ok with each other but I’m fearing I’ll have to rehome this buddy.
Will they be okay after a couple of hours or should I seperate them immediately? In the beginning they were simultaneously nipping at each others tails. Then they actually started attacking the rest of each other’s bodies.
Only when I drop food in they chill out shortly but they’ve had enough and I cannot give more now. They have one big piece of hollow driftwood with a lot of plants on it in the centre of the aquarium, which the female ropefish always chills under. Then there’s a tunnel with plants on it that they can fit entirely in. There’s one more big cave that they can go in but a little bit more curled up. And there’s one more small piece of driftwood that’s more of a coverage. There’s a lot of plants and a lot of very long vallisneria spiralis.
P.S. they don’t pay any attention to the female black molly, it’s just directed towards each other.
