mollies in my reef...

[j65love14]

Has anybody else tried this? I only have them for the fry to serve as free food.
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[stickx911]

heard it was common, but not had need to try it. Usually just wise to acclimate over a few days to the salt. I'd be more interested to see if other fish acclimate as easily.

 

[glxtrix]

Def slowly acclimate them. You can also use them to eat algae!

 

[picoreefguy]

I've tried it before but kept them in a separate tank. Have you noticed any breeding going on yet?

 

[slickwill613]

I don't know the rules on posting links. I just read a thread on another forum the other day about the same thing. Some people were saying that they had better survival without salinity acclimation, just bag float and drop em in. That being said, I have no experience with this.

Heard its a great way for free fish food.

 

[ichthyoid]

We used to keep mollies in brackish or salt water 'back in the day' when I lived in Florida.

I haven't seen this done in years. Pretty cool way to provide some live food, but I wouldn't want them in my display. Maybe a separate tank.

 

[ripped tide]

I did it 7 or 8 years ago. And then it came to me: "if I wanted my tank to look like a freshwater tank, why bother with the extra expenses and effort for salt?"

 

[jennm]

I used to keep them for the fry to be "seahorse food" back in the day. I had them in their own tank.

Brian was in Ohio last year and lots of locals were using them for algae control, it was quite popular in the Dayton area and people were keeping them in their displays.

It's doable - Mollies are often found in estuaries and can tolerate a pretty wide range of conditions from fresh to brackish to full salinity.

Jenn

 

[mcphock]

Yeah. They actually tend to be much healthier in brackish/marine conditions, as the salt maintains their preferred water chemistry.

 

[j65love14]

They are fine and I've noticed they eat algae.

 

[ichthyoid]

I would go for the big mexican sailfins, which are gorgeous! I used to breed them.

 

[j65love14]

I went with the 99¢ mollies from petsmart because they have a 14 day guarantee

 

[joseayes]

Do they tend to get ick easily than in normal freshwater, don't they? I was told that couple years ago when I ask about it to a LFS owner, he used to keep the cycling process with this little guys.

 

[mcphock]

It is actually the other way around. Mollies in salt water are nearly bullet proof.

Most freshwater aquarists keep mollies in soft/acidic water. They are fragile in those conditions.

 

[ichthyoid]

They are mostly found in brackish water, but can adapt to fresh or salt. Everything I've read says they do better with some salt in their water.

When I bred them, I had them in a freshwater pond and they were very prolific

 

[cedzaquaddiction]

I've got two in my QT waiting to go to my DT when the rest of the fish do. They've been in QT for about 1 1/2 months now, and eat everything. Fairly active as well. Just wanted to do it as an experiment, and these are the only two fish I never worry about. As mentioned above, they seem bulletproof in SW.

They didn't last long in my FW tanks in the past. Always ended up gettin eaten, but my SW fish ignore them...