Fighting Mollies

Question
I have a ten gallon aquarium that has only been set up for one week, so I know cycling will be an issue.  I have a pictus cat, three mollies and a male guppy (the female died, I think the cycle was too much for her - also she was the smallest most picked on in the tank, poor thing).  So that's the background.  About the Mollies:  I bought three black lyretail mollies, a male and two females.  When I got home, I noticed the male was not the one I'd pointed out in the tank in the store; he had white fluffy crap on his eyes and seemed to be blind.  He died that night and I took him back next day, but didn't replace him immediately as I wanted to be sure that the tank wasn't infected with anything.  Meanwhile, with the male gone, the two females fought.  And I mean FOUGHT.  They went at it all over the tank, locked together and thrashing.  I had to separate them.  Even on different sides of the divider they kept furiously trying to get at each other.  One of them seemed to be just mean (actively chasing and picking on the other fish as well) so I finally packed her up in a bag and took her back to the store and exchanged her for another female.  At the same time I bought a new male.  So I get the two new ones home and put them in the tank with the girl I still have and thankfully none of them seems to be trying to kill each other.  But while they aren't actively fighting they sure don't seem friendly; they keep their distance and pick at each other (in their little pecking order) if they get close.  I have never had this problem with mollies before!  In my last tank (and maybe I was just lucky) they were all pretty pally, all the girls swimming around together and the guys more on their own but trailing them and trying to mate.  Here the original female is definitely the dominant one, and both females seem to be dominant over the male, picking at him and driving him away (and he mostly keeps his distance).  He seems healthy and is a good size, slightly smaller than the females but not much.  Will they still mate if the male fish is running away from the females?  People talk about the male pestering the poor females, but that's definitely not what's happening here.  I'd like them to have some baby mollies in the future, so I want to make sure everything's okay.  Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Answer
Hi Annie,

It sometimes depends on the individual fish whether they are more peaceful or aggressive. The original female may be more dominant because she's the one who originally adapted to the tank first, and so, she's the most used to it. Try re-arranging the plants, rocks, and ornaments in the tank so that it's a completely 'new' look, and so the original female will no longer be 'used' to the tank. This helps reduce aggression in many species, even Cichlids.

As long as the male is in contact with the females at some point, it's highly likely that the females will become pregnant. If you want, you can buy another male after the cycle is over. In your case, the 2-1 ration of female to male does not matter, since your females are clearly more dominant.

Good Luck, and Happy Fishkeeping!