Black Mollies

[65.stingray]

Hi,
I am a new member and this is my first post.
Has anyone ever used a fresh water black molly in a saltwater tank? If so, is it adviseable. I currently have a 125 gallon tank with a uellow tang, a black lionfish, and a blue and gold striped snapper.

 

[alix2.0]

ive heard you can do it if you drip acclimate them REALLY slowly, because the are brackish water fish. i dont know if its advisable or shortens the life of the fish, but i heard they gulp hair algea like its going out of style.

 

[crimzy]

Originally Posted by 65.stingray
Hi,
I am a new member and this is my first post.
Has anyone ever used a fresh water black molly in a saltwater tank? If so, is it adviseable. I currently have a 125 gallon tank with a uellow tang, a black lionfish, and a blue and gold striped snapper.

If you have a black volitan lionfish, it will eat a molly as soon as it's large enough to fit the molly in its mouth.

 

[alix2.0]

Originally Posted by crimzy
If you have a black volitan lionfish, it will eat a molly as soon as it's large enough to fit the molly in its mouth.
haha i didnt think of that. theyre right.

 

[ophiura]

As will the snapper. You will not be able to really keep any small fish.

 

[grubsnaek]

i agree with the last three posts. with curtain fish you have it wouldn't be good. but as for mollies. i just added 4 of them to my 125DT. i drip acclimated for 10hours. i did it at night so it was peace and quite. no vibrations from the floor. no one peaking in on them. just sittin there. they have been in there for a week now. i have two males and two females. they frolick with my school of chromis.

 

[vayapues]

a bit late in getting in on this converation, but in case someone else is wondering, just be sure you like mollies, or that you only have mollies of the same ---. They repoduce like crazy.
They are a fun fish to watch, and do great. And yes, they do eat algea all day long. But 2 will turn into 20 in a matter of only a few weeks.

 

[coachklm]

Originally Posted by vayapues
http:///forum/post/2475354
But 2 will turn into 20 in a matter of only a few weeks.
they will be food for other fish...lol

 

[pastor b.]

Dear hobbyist , when I first started my salt water aquarium ,I began with black and yellow sail fin mollies . I acclimated them slowly and they reproduced very quickly .Before I knew it , I had plenty of mollies that also kept my other fish happy by becoming a food source

. Mollies are live bearers , their young are born free swimming , similar to guppies. Mollies may be used to cycle a salt water aquarium . Have fun .

 

[rara12]

They're actually a lot hardy and a speedy aclimation wont kill them. when i worked for ***** we had a shipment come in and the sailfin mollies were coated in ich. So rather then jepordize my fresh water systems i just tossed them in the salt system. They all servived and recovered from the ich. Not saying just toss em in, but i think ten hours is a little excessive for a molly.

 

[ric maniac]

Originally Posted by rara12
http:///forum/post/2478483
They're actually a lot hardy and a speedy aclimation wont kill them. when i worked for ***** we had a shipment come in and the sailfin mollies were coated in ich. So rather then jepordize my fresh water systems i just tossed them in the salt system. They all servived and recovered from the ich. Not saying just toss em in, but i think ten hours is a little excessive for a molly.
Agreed

And Pastor B., why would you cycle a tank with any fish? This is a mindset that the hobby needs to break away from.

 

[vayapues]

I agree with Rara12. The only acclimation I did was to float them, and then fill the bag with water, and float them, fill the bag more, float them, of the course of an hour or so, and they did great.

 

[jimmy40741]

I agree with no long acclimation time on mollies. I have a ton of black, marble, creamcicle and dalmation mollies in my freshwater tanks and I slowly acclimated 2 of them by putting them in a container and adding a little saltwater at a time over about a 2 hour period. They did fine. Since I put the first two in (and after doing some research) I have added 4 more by just dropping them in. All 6 have been in my tank for almost 6 weeks now and are all alive and healthy.

 

[aquaknight]

Alright, here's one that should toss you guys for a loop.

I'm having a semi-tough problem trying to keep algae down in the 125 (not thinking ahead, I positioned the tank next to a huge bay window in the front of our house) and thinking about adding a couple of these guys. My concern is that when I introduce some of my more 'aggressive' fish I don't want them to learn to consume live fish from the tank. The fish that I worry about are my 2 neon gobies I got as some extra insurance. Only buy ORA aquacultured neon gobies BTW. Anyway, they have quite the personality and took to cleaning duties for my Naso in less then 3 days. I am fairly confident that, normally, the aggressive fish, a Hawaiian Blue Spot Puffer, a Harlequin Tusk, and a Goldbar wrasse that they would normal leave the cleaners alone and not eat them. But what if they get the hint that "hey these mollies taste good, what about those neon gobies?"
One idea would be to stick to mollies of a completely different in color like orange. What if I only get orange mollies, will they only produce orange offspring through the genes, or how does that work? I've always kept multiple colors of mollies in our ponds and stuff, never a single color and figured it was through cross breeding.

 

[rara12]

I would say get large orange ones and if you dont want them to breed get only males, its easy enough to tell males from females. And i would think your neons would be ok. If you have alot of rock it should be fine.