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nevermind
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Mollies who uses them
- Thread starter doubleshot00
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Nemo&Friends
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I use one of the molly from my fresh water tank, and just dropped it in there. Did well immediately. But she ate the algae, but after a few days, ate the macro algae I was trying to grow. So I dropped it right back to my fresh water tank. The sudden change in salinity did not affect it at all.
Mine were red lyre tail mollies.
OP
OP
Im gonna try to see if they have black or this variant then.
death-by-reef
Valuable Member
you gotta acclimate them to saltwater!! how would you feel if you were taken out of our oxygen filled atmosphere and brought to a methane rich atmosphere and expected to just be fine!
killer2001
Well-Known Member
Problem with mollies is they are weak swimmers. You can essentially "throw" them in and they won't die due to salinity change, but the strong reef flow is not something they are use to considering these large chain fish stores keep them in small tanks with sponge filters basically. No flow.
I attempted to acclimate mollies at all different types of intervals... 1 hour, 4 hours, and 6 hours. Time did not seem to matter. Only one survived, and it was an aggressively strong swimmer from the start. Once I saw what was happening I turned my wavemaker off and just ran the return pump only. They would be fine for about 12 hours, but you could see they were really swimming hard in attempt to stay relevant in the water column. Then after about 12 hours, they just gave up.
edit:
Basically what I am trying to get at is... You actually need to slowly acclimate them to the reef environment, which isn't easy if your tank is already established and you need the strong flow. I was able to do it because my tank was brand new and the molly was the very first fish in the tank. As time progresses, and the fish grows and becomes stronger you can gradually increase the flow.
I attempted to acclimate mollies at all different types of intervals... 1 hour, 4 hours, and 6 hours. Time did not seem to matter. Only one survived, and it was an aggressively strong swimmer from the start. Once I saw what was happening I turned my wavemaker off and just ran the return pump only. They would be fine for about 12 hours, but you could see they were really swimming hard in attempt to stay relevant in the water column. Then after about 12 hours, they just gave up.
edit:
Basically what I am trying to get at is... You actually need to slowly acclimate them to the reef environment, which isn't easy if your tank is already established and you need the strong flow. I was able to do it because my tank was brand new and the molly was the very first fish in the tank. As time progresses, and the fish grows and becomes stronger you can gradually increase the flow.
OP
OP
I thought that may be an issue to. I did try to buy the biggest ones from the store.
killer2001
Well-Known Member
Yeah, that was also my thoughts. But I like to think of it as throwing an obese out-of-shape person on a treadmill that is set to maximum speed, with no option to stop.
I have them in all my tanks.
I spend about half a day acclimating to salt water and toss them in... Large black ones do best in higher flow tanks, but I have lyre-tails in my low-med flow tanks. It IS possible to pass some worms, so be mindful of mucusy clearish white poop from any of them. All other diseases, no worries.
They are social and will get shy, lethargic and IMHO sad if kept alone. Add one to a group that has been alone and it it looks visible happy to see some pals. Get a group of 3 or more to distribute any aggression within their own group and they are easy, good grazer, and great dither fish for other small shy fish. Most marine fish ignore them.
I spend about half a day acclimating to salt water and toss them in... Large black ones do best in higher flow tanks, but I have lyre-tails in my low-med flow tanks. It IS possible to pass some worms, so be mindful of mucusy clearish white poop from any of them. All other diseases, no worries.
They are social and will get shy, lethargic and IMHO sad if kept alone. Add one to a group that has been alone and it it looks visible happy to see some pals. Get a group of 3 or more to distribute any aggression within their own group and they are easy, good grazer, and great dither fish for other small shy fish. Most marine fish ignore them.
Please do not toss them into saltwater tank without acclimatizing. Google Jake Adams acclimatizing Mollies from freshwater to saltwater for some ideas/guidance. Certain species tend to last longer than others. You want best results (i.e long life not die in a few months). I bought a black mollie born in saltwater about 6 months ago so that was a piece of cake. She is growing - she's the whale in my nano tank! Peaceful, could beat the crap out of my clownfish who at times gets aggressive toward her. She's always eating - not so much picking algae off rocks, but off the glass and the sand bed. She and lawnmower blenny get along fine and play volleyball whenever I toss in a food pellet.
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