babies & bullying - help please

[TeenDivided]

Since April we have had an 80 litre tank.
We have 1 angel fish and had 3 mollies. They had been getting on OK, with the smallest hiding at times.

One of the mollies, the largest, recently gave birth. They were all eaten, mainly by the angel fish. On the same day the middle sized male molly 'bullied' the smallest (male) one and killed it.

So now we have 1 Angel fish, one largish female molly, and one smaller male molly who is a bit of a pest and is now following the female around.

Mollies like to be in groups. So do we buy one or 2 more? Male or female?

What do you when your fish have fry? We don't want to end up with 20 more fish, but watching them being eaten was somewhat interesting but traumatising...

Unfortunately your tank isn't ideal long term.

Angelfish are very large growing - they get up to 10"-12" tall, they need a much larger tank than 80 litres, closer to 200 litres or more and a tank with good height too. They are ambush predators, they are Cichlids, those fry will not last with an Angel in there, they are snacks.

Mollies are hardy but actually need very different water chemistry to Angels. They thrive in harder water while Angels come from the soft water of the Amazon rainforest. As livebearers, they need to be kept in the ratio of at least 2-3 females to a male, or, as you've found, they have the potential to sex-pest a lone female to death.

I keep mollies and they can be ass holes, we started with 2 but one of them was really aggressive so we got 3 more, 2 female, one male and the aggression has now calmed down and the chasing behaviour is more spread out. Also you could try to add some plants and places for fish to hide in the tank.

Also don’t worry about the babies getting eaten, it sounds harsh but it’s natures way. They would quickly overpopulate the tank otherwise.

Most of the babies in my tank get eaten by the discus, I just see it as free fish food. One or 2 will be lucky enough to survive, I guess it’s natural selection.🤔