Saltwater molly tips

[dustin.emmanuel]

I went to petsmart and see these mollies and remembered that they can be acclimated to a reef tank. I have a few tangs and fuzzy dwarf lionfish inside so I'm not sure if I can add mollies. Will I have to do copper treat for them to add after acclimating? And Will they help with algae? Any opinions will be appreciated

 

[KrisReef]

I have watched folks drop them right into salt from fresh, and they survived well. Mine always made me wonder why they didn't want to survive when I added them?

That fuzzy lion will be happy to have them over for lunch!

I don't use copper, so I'm not the person to answer that one?

 

[Fish Fan]

Yeah, the Mollies would be a no-go with the lion fish. Mollies and Guppies, when converted over to salt, seem to have no idea what a saltwater predator is, and will bumble right into them.

 

[dustin.emmanuel]

I thought so too about the lionfish. Even if it is only 3.5 inch, there is still chance of being eaten. Unless the mollies are huge enough to not get eaten, but petsmart's mollies are small. Does copper treat not applied for them?

 

[Fish Fan]

Even a small Lionfish will likely eat even a decent sized Molly, and the Lion will grow quickly, so I still don't think this is a great mix.

But, as far how to QT them, I searched, and I got replies from Jay H. that seem to be a little conflicting. Here, he says that QT is important for all livestock, and notes that many Mollies are breed in brackishwater, not fresh, and should be QT'd (and he means a copper based, medicated QT, typically):
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/temperate-atlantic-compatibility-with-reef.1166000/post-14464026

And here he says to just raise the salinity, noting that most ectoparasites cannot go from fresh to full saltwater:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-molly-qt.1134271/post-13954778

He does note that freshwater Mollies can bring internal parasites, though not as easy to transmit to other fish.

If this was me, I'd do the full QT on them out of an abundance of caution, if nothing else.

@Jay Hemdal do you have a minute to clarify if the OP should or should not do a medicated QT on Mollies converted from fresh to saltwater? Thank you for your help!

 

[Ef4life]

Jake had a great saltwater Molly video

 

[Subsea]

I went to petsmart and see these mollies and remembered that they can be acclimated to a reef tank. I have a few tangs and fuzzy dwarf lionfish inside so I'm not sure if I can add mollies. Will I have to do copper treat for them to add after acclimating? And Will they help with algae? Any opinions will be appreciated

Mollies will not do well with tangs and lions will eat them. I have used them in seaweed grow out tanks.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I went to petsmart and see these mollies and remembered that they can be acclimated to a reef tank. I have a few tangs and fuzzy dwarf lionfish inside so I'm not sure if I can add mollies. Will I have to do copper treat for them to add after acclimating? And Will they help with algae? Any opinions will be appreciated

Do you know what species of Molly they are? Some adapt more easily to seawater than others.

 

[dustin.emmanuel]

Do you know what species of Molly they are? Some adapt more easily to seawater than others.

I'm not sure what species they are since petsmart sells them. There is a few dalmations color and black colored molly on sale

 

[keagan]

I'm not sure what species they are since petsmart sells them. There is a few dalmations color and black colored molly on sale

I used PetSmart mollies and the only ones that didn't acclimate well were the silver mollies. I had ones born in my tank that looked silver but when I tried to acclimate the silver ones sold on store they all died every time. The dalmatian and black do well.

Old pictures and I'm no photographer but here's some PetSmart mollies thriving in saltwater

They breed like crazy when settled in. This was when I started my old system so the aquarium is ugly. The mollies got annoying after awhile and I sold off alot of babies and adults before adding a predator to eat them. If you want tips on acclimation DM me I ended up with a solid 80% survival (minus the darn silver ones) after some experimenting