Acclimating saltwater mollies to freshwater?

[AudreyG]

So I’ve done a lot of googling, and everything I can find is all about acclimating freshwater mollies to salt, but I can’t find anything about the opposite.

I was setting up my saltwater aquarium and wanted some cheap cyclers for my tank, so I decided to go with mollies because I read that they could be used in saltwater too. I had my first algae bloom and got my inverts and all was good until my black molly decided to procreate a bunch of babies overnight. I knew she was pregnant (or I had some sort of idea), but I didn’t know when she was going to have her fry and I planned on putting her in a breeders box first so that I could catch all the babies.

Anyways, now I have nine fry in a diy breeders box and my tank unplugged because they keep on slipping down my sump box to their deaths. I was wondering if now that I have my aquarium established, I could move all the babies (and eventually the parents) to their own freshwater tank so that I can start getting some actual saltwater fish and not have to worry about the fry dying.

I vividly remember the guy at Petco saying that you could just throw the freshwater mollies into a saltwater tank and they will be fine (which I obviously was not going to do) but that when going from salt to fresh you have to be very careful. Has anyone ever attempted to bring saltwater mollies back to freshwater, and if so, is there a different procedure than just the slow acclimation process I used to put them in saltwater?

Thanks,
Audrey

 

[Dfrost]

You dont need to be over careful. Do the same way you acclimate saltwater fish. Either drip for an hour, or temp acclimate and add a little fresh water every 5 minutes til you have doubled the volume you started with. Done it many times, never an issue.
Good luck.

 

[AudreyG]

You dont need to be over careful. Do the same way you acclimate saltwater fish. Either drip for an hour, or temp acclimate and add a little fresh water every 5 minutes til you have doubled the volume you started with. Done it many times, never an issue.
Good luck.

Thank you!

 

[Indytraveler83]

Not that i reccomend it, but my black mollies were exposed to what I believe was a velvet outbreak. I was having poor results with treatment, so I tossed them back in freshwater. Sure enough the velvet went away and the mollies survived.

Mine are absolutely immune to salinity changes, but I don't know if that is just them or not.

 

[Dfrost]

Nope, most wont die just throwing them in...but I acclimate to be "nice".

 

[AudreyG]

Not that i reccomend it, but my black mollies were exposed to what I believe was a velvet outbreak. I was having poor results with treatment, so I tossed them back in freshwater. Sure enough the velvet went away and the mollies survived.

Mine are absolutely immune to salinity changes, but I don't know if that is just them or not.

I think I’m going to be a little more careful with the fry since they’re probably not as hardy as their parents, but thanks for the reply!

 

[William Robinson]

So a few months back I acclimated my molly's to my reef tank just primarily to get them out of a small aquarium in my sons room to tear it down. Low and behold last night I go to clean out some chaeto and there are molly fry swimming around in there to my shock. These little things got sucked down the over flow and into the refugium and are thriving eating up excess algae for me.

 

[AudreyG]

So a few months back I acclimated my molly's to my reef tank just primarily to get them out of a small aquarium in my sons room to tear it down. Low and behold last night I go to clean out some chaeto and there are molly fry swimming around in there to my shock. These little things got sucked down the over flow and into the refugium and are thriving eating up excess algae for me.

The genius who built and had the tank before me put an acrylic piece attached to the top of the tank that covers the sump box and then filled the sump box with bioballs which flows into another box in the sump with more bioballs, so unfortunately I don’t think my fry that got sucked down survived, but I have since moved the 13 babies I have left to a separate 10 gallon tank with a piece of live rock, a heater, and an aerator to start my acclimation process back to freshwater. I also don’t have a filter or anything blocking my protein skimmer pump or my main pump, so I don’t think they would survive in my sump.

 

[Pickwun]

Only put mollies in a tank if you plan to have a molly tank - unless you're callous enough to become a molly serial killer.
After you get them swapped back to fresh what are your plans for dealing with dozens of mollies?

 

[William Robinson]

Only put mollies in a tank if you plan to have a molly tank - unless you're callous enough to become a molly serial killer.
After you get them swapped back to fresh what are your plans for dealing with dozens of mollies?

Why would you say that? My molly's are thriving, breeding and I have spoken with my LRS and they are going to start taking in my fry to offer for algae control in tanks and refugiums. You would be amazed at how well they clean out my screens going into my over flow. I never have to wipe it off.

 

[William Robinson]

The genius who built and had the tank before me put an acrylic piece attached to the top of the tank that covers the sump box and then filled the sump box with bioballs which flows into another box in the sump with more bioballs, so unfortunately I don’t think my fry that got sucked down survived, but I have since moved the 13 babies I have left to a separate 10 gallon tank with a piece of live rock, a heater, and an aerator to start my acclimation process back to freshwater. I also don’t have a filter or anything blocking my protein skimmer pump or my main pump, so I don’t think they would survive in my sump.

Oh, that sucks. I have a Eshopps M Cube sump with refugium. For some reason all of the fry flow towards the refugium and not through the sock channel. I think its so neat they are breeding. Im kind of curious though if they are only going to eat the hair algae that grown in the refug area or if they are going to develop a taste for chaeto. I'll admit, its kinda cute seeing them wedged up in the chaeto ball slowly spinning around... In my head its children saying "Weeeeeeee" lol

 

[Pickwun]

Why would you say that? My molly's are thriving, breeding and I have spoken with my LRS and they are going to start taking in my fry to offer for algae control in tanks and refugiums. You would be amazed at how well they clean out my screens going into my over flow. I never have to wipe it off.

It's the thriving, breeding part. That's what mollies do. I started with 4 and had more than 20 at times in my puffer tank.
As long as you've got somebody to take them that's great, otherwise you eventually run out of places to put molly tanks.

 

[William Robinson]

It's the thriving, breeding part. That's what mollies do. I started with 4 and had more than 20 at times in my puffer tank.
As long as you've got somebody to take them that's great, otherwise you eventually run out of places to put molly tanks.

I see what you're saying now. For now my LFS will take them and give me credit for any fry so I'll turn them in there.

 

[AudreyG]

Only put mollies in a tank if you plan to have a molly tank - unless you're callous enough to become a molly serial killer.
After you get them swapped back to fresh what are your plans for dealing with dozens of mollies?

I was going to see if I could sell them when they get older, but I’ve seen lots of much smaller tanks with dozens of mollies in them, so I think they’ll be ok until then.