black mollies

[ekclark]

I have a book that claims black mollies can be "converted" to a marine fish through gradual introduction to salt. My question is has anyone done this? It said they woul still breed up a storm in the marine water and I thought the young might make a good food supplement in my reef. Am I cruel? Anyway, tell me if you know anyone who has done this and if they were more trouble than they are worth.

 

[ryebread]

You're not cruel......you are sick!! There is a difference. I have not done this myself but, I know people who have. It is pretty simple as far as I know. You will take your mollies in a bag and gradually drip your saltwater into the bag over an extended acclimation period. Usually 6-12 hours with some sort of "Drip Device". Next Day....... Tadaa!! Saltwater Mollies. Many people do this to use the mollies fry as a food source......I prefer a cheeseburger myself but, you get the point. You might be able to find SW Mollies at the LFS. My LFS sells them for two bucks a piece.

 

[jarre]

Now Rye I wouldn't be to tough on the guy. I've known many people to use guppies or gold fish as feeders in FS. Personally I couldn't do it, but then again I'm a softy!!

 

[musipilot]

The procedure is right...but not the time frame. Mollies can be acclimated (as can the fresh water green spotted puffers they sell in LFSes) but it should not be done over 6-12 hours, rather over the same period of salination you would do to restore a hyposaline tank to normal salinity.
Raise the salinity .001 every 12 hours, or the easy method, .002 per day until they're at full salinity. This gives them a much better chance to adjust to the new water, which is much heavier then they are used to.

 

[shadow678]

I am about to begin this with some dalmation mollies, I'll let you know how it goes once I have fully acclimated them to slatwater. I will be using them as supplement food for my lions and leaf fish.

 

[surfnturf]

This doesn't sound that cruel to me, mollies are estuary fish and are able to adjust to widely varying salinity, they do a lot better with low to medium salinity, than in pure freshwater. Sounds a lot better than taking guppies and dumping them in seawater.

 

[jake22]

The way i did it 2 about 2 months ago was, I bought two mollie and put them in a 5 gallon bucket with only the water from the bag. The i put an airstone in and started dripping in the saltwater it took 6 hours, then I acclimated them to the take by floating the bag for 30 min. The mollies staring eating right away and showed no sings of stress.

 

[ekclark]

Hey Mussi--
Have you ever kept any of those spotted puffers in a reef? I had one when I was a kid, it did not last long, but I always thought they were cool fish. Anyone know how big those fresh/brackish spotted puffers get? Will they be the death of many an invert? Thanks.

 

[mr. angelfish]

Are their nutrient intakes that being comsumed from saltwater foodchain to enable the necessaries of health needs of the swfishes?
Are we better off feeding a pure sw-livefishes than those mollies?

 

[musipilot]

You can't keep the green spotted puffers in a reef...they will annoy and eat your snails, and they'll even attack shrimp 4 times their size.
We've kept them (have one now) in our 180 aggressive tank with a huma trigger, a porcupine puffer, a tang and a clown. He has no problem competing for food, and is a happy little camper. We added him when the tank was in hyposalinity (1.009) and then he got acclimated to full salinity slowly with the rest of the tank. He's about 2 now.

 

[musipilot]

Here's the only photo I could find of our green spot...with his friend porky.

 

[pupchow]

Just wondering how the mollies are doing? I am about to forego the same project to feed my Leaf fish!

 

[rockster]

Guppies are cheaper and hardier than black mollies. LFS sells them for 20/buck!

 

[pupchow]

Can you convert Guppy to salt water easier than Mollies though? I remmeber reading that it was done before, but through a couple generations?