Mollies

[smoothie]

Anyone considered a pair of these for their reef tank? Just thinking and reading up on them. They eat algae like crazy and reproduce like mad which just equals free food. Nothing tropical about them, but jet black would look ok against all the colors of the coral and coraline.
Just a thought for the tank at work.

 

[chauwall]

I tried black and white sailfin mollies 4 years ago because of all of those threads that I've read at RC and was sold on the idea like an infomercial:doh:. Anyway, it failed miserably, they didn't even look at the hair algae, and I thought having those freshwater fish in a saltwater tank looked REALLY stupid:unsure:.

I'd get Mexican Turbo snails before doing that again. Just my two cents.

 

[tabblet15]

I've had them in salt before, and boy did they put a hurtin' on the hair algea. But as chauwall said, a turbo would do just as well.

 

[bclark7169]

check with Ramone on here he has some in his frag tank

 

[smoothie]

tabblet15;377167 wrote: I've had them in salt before, and boy did they put a hurtin' on the hair algea. But as chauwall said, a turbo would do just as well.

Yeah but hermits won't kill the mollies

 

[tabblet15]

What kind of hermits are you keeping, lol. My turbo's a beast! Then again all I have are the little dwarf blues and scarlet's...never had a problem with em. I think the mollies are worth a try, they did well when I had em.

 

[ga_daisy]

Back in the DARK ages, when it was not only acceptable but also a common practice of using fish to cycle a tank, I used Black Mollies instead of Damsels. They produced babies galore and ate the heck out of the algae. Eventually I was left with only one, he was HUGE and was a bit of a punk in my tank. So.....he found his way back to the pet store and was Trigger food.

IMO....they seem to poop alot. Of course, I suppose if they are eating a boatload of algae, one thing causes the other.

I currently have one in my 235. His fins stay beat up all of the time. He will heal up and in a few days looks like ****it again. I don't see anyone picking on him, so not sure what is going on there.

I do agree with the earlier posting.....looks kinda odd to have one in my reef set up, but back when I had FOWLR, it didn't seem to be as strange.