My Marine Molly Community

[mattybecks]

Hi Guys,

I have had a marine molly community for a week now. I have kept other fancy marine fish, corals, anemones before, but decided to sell everything and just do some something simple and easy.

Tank is 150L. Lights are cheap 2 USD each LEDS. Using a canister filter (sunsun304B, 2000LPH) and very small, internal skimmer.

The Mollies were originally fresh water when I got them, I bought 21. (7 Black, 7 white, 7 yellow/orange.)
Upon getting home I put them directly into low end brackish water (no acclimatization, didn't measure the salinity). 30 min later they were moved to high end brackish water (again didnt measure salinty, just put them straight in) and 15 min after this they went into full marine (34ppt).

They settled in pretty quickly, and went about their Molly business excitedly kissing rocks. These guys are the best algae eaters I have ever had. I left the tank empty for a week before getting them, with very strong white lights (200W + 200W LEDS) shining into the tank for 12 hours. They made short of every type of algae I had growing on the rocks/glass/pumps/skimmer etc.

One week later they have all survived, and there are so many babies swimming around. I noticed babies on the second day, so they were obviously pregnant in the LFS, but interestingly (for me at least) was that the babies were born quite big. Big enough that the other mollies cant eat them.
It was ages ago, but when I have had mollies breed in FW, the babies always seemed much smaller.

Marine Molly Aquarium - YouTube
Mollies in Marine - YouTube

 

[Casket_Case]

Hi Guys,

I have had a marine molly community for a week now. I have kept other fancy marine fish, corals, anemones before, but decided to sell everything and just do some something simple and easy.

Tank is 150L. Lights are cheap 2 USD each LEDS. Using a canister filter (sunsun304B, 2000LPH) and very small, internal skimmer.

The Mollies were originally fresh water when I got them, I bought 21. (7 Black, 7 white, 7 yellow/orange.)
Upon getting home I put them directly into low end brackish water (no acclimatization, didn't measure the salinity). 30 min later they were moved to high end brackish water (again didnt measure salinty, just put them straight in) and 15 min after this they went into full marine (34ppt).

They settled in pretty quickly, and went about their Molly business excitedly kissing rocks. These guys are the best algae eaters I have ever had. I left the tank empty for a week before getting them, with very strong white lights (200W + 200W LEDS) shining into the tank for 12 hours. They made short of every type of algae I had growing on the rocks/glass/pumps/skimmer etc.

One week later they have all survived, and there are so many babies swimming around. I noticed babies on the second day, so they were obviously pregnant in the LFS, but interestingly (for me at least) was that the babies were born quite big. Big enough that the other mollies cant eat them.
It was ages ago, but when I have had mollies breed in FW, the babies always seemed much smaller.

Marine Molly Aquarium - YouTube
Mollies in Marine - YouTube

Amazing! I love this idea! Are they short-finned or lyre-tail? And how many GPH do you have? If theyre eating that much algae I might get some but I don’t want them to get chopped up or sucked into the filter. Any future plans for the system? Maybe macroalgaes or a coastal theme?

 

[nereefpat]

Are you going to keep corals?

 

[Daniel92481]

Hi Guys,

I have had a marine molly community for a week now. I have kept other fancy marine fish, corals, anemones before, but decided to sell everything and just do some something simple and easy.

Tank is 150L. Lights are cheap 2 USD each LEDS. Using a canister filter (sunsun304B, 2000LPH) and very small, internal skimmer.

The Mollies were originally fresh water when I got them, I bought 21. (7 Black, 7 white, 7 yellow/orange.)
Upon getting home I put them directly into low end brackish water (no acclimatization, didn't measure the salinity). 30 min later they were moved to high end brackish water (again didnt measure salinty, just put them straight in) and 15 min after this they went into full marine (34ppt).

They settled in pretty quickly, and went about their Molly business excitedly kissing rocks. These guys are the best algae eaters I have ever had. I left the tank empty for a week before getting them, with very strong white lights (200W + 200W LEDS) shining into the tank for 12 hours. They made short of every type of algae I had growing on the rocks/glass/pumps/skimmer etc.

One week later they have all survived, and there are so many babies swimming around. I noticed babies on the second day, so they were obviously pregnant in the LFS, but interestingly (for me at least) was that the babies were born quite big. Big enough that the other mollies cant eat them.
It was ages ago, but when I have had mollies breed in FW, the babies always seemed much smaller.

Marine Molly Aquarium - YouTube
Mollies in Marine - YouTube

Oh nice! I just learned about these amazing freaks of nature. Their adaptability is amazing to me.

 

[mattybecks]

Amazing! I love this idea! Are they short-finned or lyre-tail? And how many GPH do you have? If theyre eating that much algae I might get some but I don’t want them to get chopped up or sucked into the filter. Any future plans for the system? Maybe macroalgaes or a coastal theme?

Thanks! No they arent lye tails, just your regulars paid what works out 0.5 USD per fish. Cheapest SW fish I ever bought lo.
I am leaving my lights on as long as possible to allow as much algae growth as I can. I must say its quite nice not having to clean algae from the glass front yet haha.

My canister filter runs at 2000lph (sunsun 304B), not sure what this in gallons. But I removed the waver maker I had to keep a gentle flow which they seem to appreciate and they swim in all areas of the tank. (adults and fry).

Future plans: Yes the coastal type was an idea I was playing around with. I will go collect some calcified rocks/shells/sand/algae clumps and stuff from the beach here and put them in the tank. I have done this before and loved the biodiversity you get in terms of crabs, worms, algaes, pods etc.

I dont know if my lights are strong enough for proper macro algae (there is loads of red gracileria, caulerpa, and padina (the brown rose/lettuce looking algae I think its called?). Two blue garden LEDs, and one white one.

I was also thinking of maybe adding two ocellaris clowns?

 

[mattybecks]

Are you going to keep corals?

No I wont be keeping any corals

 

[mattybecks]

Oh nice! I just learned about these amazing freaks of nature. Their adaptability is amazing to me.

Thats what inspired me to try it out and see for myself. I want to see what happens with multiple generations bred only in Salt water. I will add some new mollies every now and again to help with the genetic diversity too.

 

[mattybecks]

Just an update:
This weekend I had one white molly die. All the others still seem good. And there are more fry haha

 

[Hugh Mann]

I too have saltwater mollies. It's pretty hilarious having freshwater fish in with the salties. As mentioned, epic algae eaters.

Had to move them to a fresh after I contaminated my tank with ich though.

 

[Chrille26]

Looks cool! I introduced two Dalmatian Mollies to help with my algae issues and both are still alive and kicking several weeks later.
at the beginning they were getting their ***** kicked by both flow and tank mates, but now they are a part of the community.
Great grazers as mentioned and actually quite fun, much more active then in their freshwater environment.

 

[Alex808]

Thanks! No they arent lye tails, just your regulars paid what works out 0.5 USD per fish. Cheapest SW fish I ever bought lo.
I am leaving my lights on as long as possible to allow as much algae growth as I can. I must say its quite nice not having to clean algae from the glass front yet haha.

My canister filter runs at 2000lph (sunsun 304B), not sure what this in gallons. But I removed the waver maker I had to keep a gentle flow which they seem to appreciate and they swim in all areas of the tank. (adults and fry).

Future plans: Yes the coastal type was an idea I was playing around with. I will go collect some calcified rocks/shells/sand/algae clumps and stuff from the beach here and put them in the tank. I have done this before and loved the biodiversity you get in terms of crabs, worms, algaes, pods etc.

I dont know if my lights are strong enough for proper macro algae (there is loads of red gracileria, caulerpa, and padina (the brown rose/lettuce looking algae I think its called?). Two blue garden LEDs, and one white one.

I was also thinking of maybe adding two ocellaris clowns?

I've been thinking about finding some Wild Sailfin molly from a canal near my house. They're a very cool shiny looking fish. This might be what pushes me.

 

[mattybecks]

Looks cool! I introduced two Dalmatian Mollies to help with my algae issues and both are still alive and kicking several weeks later.
at the beginning they were getting their ***** kicked by both flow and tank mates, but now they are a part of the community.
Great grazers as mentioned and actually quite fun, much more active then in their freshwater environment.

Looks good! Yes I find them quite active.

 

[mattybecks]

I've been thinking about finding some Wild Sailfin molly from a canal near my house. They're a very cool shiny looking fish. This might be what pushes me.

yeah why not!

 

[Casket_Case]

Thanks! No they arent lye tails, just your regulars paid what works out 0.5 USD per fish. Cheapest SW fish I ever bought lo.
I am leaving my lights on as long as possible to allow as much algae growth as I can. I must say its quite nice not having to clean algae from the glass front yet haha.

My canister filter runs at 2000lph (sunsun 304B), not sure what this in gallons. But I removed the waver maker I had to keep a gentle flow which they seem to appreciate and they swim in all areas of the tank. (adults and fry).

Future plans: Yes the coastal type was an idea I was playing around with. I will go collect some calcified rocks/shells/sand/algae clumps and stuff from the beach here and put them in the tank. I have done this before and loved the biodiversity you get in terms of crabs, worms, algaes, pods etc.

I dont know if my lights are strong enough for proper macro algae (there is loads of red gracileria, caulerpa, and padina (the brown rose/lettuce looking algae I think its called?). Two blue garden LEDs, and one white one.

I was also thinking of maybe adding two ocellaris clowns?

That sounds amazing! I’m stoked to see the finished product! I’d love to collect algae’s and clumps of debris from the beach to add to my tank but I live four hours from the beach. I used to be thirty minutes in Florida before I moved to Georgia, and I’ve just gotten into reef tanks since I’ve moved here. XD

 

[N.Sreefer]

I love my mollies but its gotten to the point where i must have near 100 theyll breed like crazy and definetly add to your bioload

 

[Markxc]

Looks cool! I introduced two Dalmatian Mollies to help with my algae issues and both are still alive and kicking several weeks later.
at the beginning they were getting their ***** kicked by both flow and tank mates, but now they are a part of the community.
Great grazers as mentioned and actually quite fun, much more active then in their freshwater environment.

what are you using for flow? wanted try mollies but most posts i found said they couldnt handle flow.

 

[mattybecks]

That sounds amazing! I’m stoked to see the finished product! I’d love to collect algae’s and clumps of debris from the beach to add to my tank but I live four hours from the beach. I used to be thirty minutes in Florida before I moved to Georgia, and I’ve just gotten into reef tanks since I’ve moved here. XD

Added some extra stuff from the beach this weekend. Just a few small clumps of calcified stuff (largest was a little bigger than my hand), which had tubes of what looked like fan worms/mussels or something. It was night so I didn't see exactly what loose stuff i was picking up.
When I got home and checked in the light I had a bunch of various types and sizes of crabs too. They all went in. maybe 10 - 12 in total. Smallest was about 1cm (majority were about 3cm. One big boy was 8cm.
I noticed snails yesterdays, and this morning I saw three small sea slugs. (two the same species, the other looked very different).
On the few pieces of stuff I took there was also quite a few different types of algae, a few different types of green, and then some grass like red algae which covered most things.
These last few days the tank has exploded with life and stuff I didn't see initially. The Mollies are loving it too haha.

 

[mattybecks]

I love my mollies but its gotten to the point where i must have near 100 theyll breed like crazy and definetly add to your bioload

Yes I noticed how many little ones are swimming around. I may have to get a predator at some point to eat them.

 

[mattybecks]

what are you using for flow? wanted try mollies but most posts i found said they couldnt handle flow.

The only flow I have is the outlet from the canister filter (2000lph). Its angled down and sometimes they like to swim into it, but they do need some areas they can chill out and graze at a more relaxed pace.

 

[anthonygf]

I have a couple Dalmatian Mollies that turned totally black after a few weeks. Why is that?