Mollies

[salisbury a d]

I just got the new AMF magazine and one of the articles was on mollies and how they need salt. Is it possible to aclimate my balloon mollie to salt water and put it in my mini reef? And will it eat marine food?
Adam

 

[nacl-h2o]

I don't know about ballon mollies spcificly (I would think so) but most mollies come for brackish water and can easily be acclimated to salt. And yes they will eat marine food.

 

[tnreef]

Mollies can veery easily be acclimanated to Marine. Start off slow and add about 1/8 of a cup off water per gallon per day until your tank is at the normal salinity (1.022-1.025).
Just a note that many people uses mollies to cycle their tanks.

 

[pufferlover]

I know I have read articles and even seen Sailfin Mollies in full salt as to Ballon Mollies I would suppose they would work also. It is very true that Mollies were used for cycling quite a bit in the early days of the hobby, but I think people wanted more color and they lost favor thru no fault of their own. I also have heard that some salt people keep a pair of Sailfins that reproduce quite well and they give birth to live babies which then become food for the other fish (not a great thought but understandable). I used to have 2 pairs of Sailfins when I did mainly Fresh and they would give me a 100 to 125 babies every 5 weeks like clockwork. I would keep them for a bit feed them heavy then sell them to my lfs and frankly these 2 pairs thru out some great looking babies that my lfs yearned to get and sell.