Fresh Water Mollies

D

daniel411

Guest
I just got back from a trip to Six Flags... formerly a Sea World. They had a small 1' deep wading pool maybe 14' in diameter. With stingrays, small cat sharks, and other creatures that could be pet.
Also in the pool their had to be THOUSANDS of fresh water mollies. I asked the caretaker, and he said they put about ten in-back in the beginning of spring. They've since reproduced like crazy, and the sharks and rays just leave them alone.
Has anyone ever converted them over to saltwater? How long did you spend converting them; hours, days, weeks?
Does anyone have any in their sw aquariums?
Can they really reproduce that fast?
 
cb

cb

Member
Even though they are classified as freshwater fish mollies prefer brackish water so you could acclimate them slowly over a period of time without much ill affect I have seen people just put them in a saltwater tank and the fish survives and becomes accustomed to the salt But to me that seems a little harsh.
 
jumpfrog

jumpfrog

Active Member
I acclimated some over a period of a couple hours. Took them to about 1.019. Since I've brought it up to about 22 and they're fine. Have babies every 4-6 weeks. Here they are with a mated pair of orange skunk clowns.
 
col

col

Active Member
Seen as you can only have so few fish per gallon in a Saltwater, why would anyone want to put Mollies in?
Do they not add to bioload or something?
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member

Originally posted by col
Seen as you can only have so few fish per gallon in a Saltwater, why would anyone want to put Mollies in?
Do they not add to bioload or something?
Of course they add to the bioload.
I recommend mollies as a cycle fish. Much better to have a living constant bioload than a dead anything. And the are cheap and readily available, and extremely hardy.
After the initial cycle my wife and I removed the mollies. Had to have some real saltwater fish. :D
 
jake22

jake22

Member
I added 2 mollies to my seahorse tank. The babies provided food for the other fish and the adult mollies ate up an algae problem i had.
 
cb

cb

Member
Jake22 did the seahorses eat the baby mollies? what other fish do you have in with your seahorses? Sorry for all the questions but I am going to set up a seahorse tank and want to know all I can before I set it up.
 
col

col

Active Member
I recommend mollies as a cycle fish. Much better to have a living constant bioload than a dead anything
Did you used to pull the legs off spiders when you were a kid?
 
dmarie120

dmarie120

Member
I have mollies in my tank also. I'm using the newest batch of babies to feed my dwarf lion until I can get him onto frozen.
I keep the babies in a 10 gallon and my adult mollies in one of my main tanks. I used to feed them to my eels until they went to frozen food instead.
 
D

daniel411

Guest
The ones I seen couldn't have been but a 3/4 of an inch long, and maybe a 1/4 in diameter.
Not knowing much about them, do they get much bigger than that? I can't really see them being to much of a bio-load if they're that small.
 
737mech

737mech

Member
I keep 2 mollies in my QT so there will be a bio load on the tank. They are very hardy. Nothing seems to faze them.
 
cb

cb

Member
I have tow 30 g cichlid tanks and found that they are very aggressive I have diferent ones in the same tank but had to add them all together I can add nothing else to these tanks now because they kill everything I put in so are they community fish I don't think they are.
 
smokinstarfish

smokinstarfish

Member
Just had to pipe up... What kind of cichlids like to taste the sea by the cup? Since all the rave on this site lately has been FW... Ocean salt has an amazing diversity of elements; from arsenic to gold... sea salt would create unnatural water conditions for all cichlids I can think of.
The ingredient lists for the Red Sea and Lake Malawi (for example), though similar, are actually quite different. Now, the difference between that and a discus’ water is enormous. The small cup sea salt per tank advice for 'cichlids' probably will not lead to any newbie’s' success.
About community cichlids... Our largest lfs chain here will tell you that $300 discus are community fish... says so on the tanks.... Everything they have in saltwater can all go together, yup in a 55 gal that's fine.... no need to cycle, or get live rock...
The spread of wrong information by those who don't know better (or do) is epidemic on the grander scheme of things.. Extreme cases often lead to animal abuse.
I don't believe in the term 'community fish' anyway. It's all subjective to how far the aquarist is willing to push the envelope, forcing unnatural environments in a bid to cater to all the species’ conflicting requirements. Stick with one biotope. IMHO, your fish will always make better pets.
:D
 
langcjl

langcjl

Member
Who is the arbiter of what’s COOL and what’s not? Many people would say that keeping ocean fish in a small tank is not COOL. Don’t you think it is a bit hypocritical, criticizing someones cycling technique, (in whish the fish lived) considering your insistence on keeping your fish in an unnatural environment and depriving them of their natural environment?
 
smokinstarfish

smokinstarfish

Member
Advising people to cycle a SW tank with mollies will end in more dead mollies than not. But, if newbies are aware of this risk then dead mollies or lots of happy baby mollies is the price paid to smooth the way for more exotic and rare wild fish.
But I don't think everyone will be this successful with mollies, and just create more suffering than can be reasonably avoided. It's a little unessessary to even cycle with damsels as it subjects them to a lot of stress, although they'd probably recover later on.
I used dead feeder goldfish to cycle mine so I guess we're all hypocritical in this hobby. :) :( :) :(
 
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