Saltwater Mollies. . .

[sushi1517]

Has anyone acclimated any brackish livebearers like mollies,guppies or platties? What was your acclimation process? was is successful? What type of algeas do you know they consume in the saltwater tank? Does anyone think they may eat caulerpa? Does anyone want to attempt to find out?

[Allmost]

I have on many occasions. they are hardy ... they can go from fresh to salt within 1-2 hours. thats how I usually do it.

they breed much more rapidly in SW.

no experience with them and caulerpa.

[arnoldrew]

I acclimated mine in about 1-2 hours. They've done fine, although I haven't seen any babies in a while. I think they've all been eaten before I could spot them.

[mayjong]

how do they do with other peaceful reef fish? gobies,cardinals, etc?
what do you feed them?
thanks!

[arnoldrew]

how do they do with other peaceful reef fish? gobies,cardinals, etc?
what do you feed them?
thanks!

They do fine. They graze off the algae in my tank all day and they eat whatever I put in to feed the other fish, mostly frozen mysis and emerald entree and some pellets.

[jinks]

Had mollies for a bit. They would pick at algae but did not put a real dent in it. They had a hard time with the height flow in my tank and one got stuck to a power head.

[Bezz]

Had mollies for a bit. They would pick at algae but did not put a real dent in it. They had a hard time with the height flow in my tank and one got stuck to a power head.

Similar experience here. I removed my mollies after 3hrs as they can't handle the high flow in my tank. They get blown around while other fishes have no issue with the flow.

[pr12]

I keep them, my sister decided to dump a bunch of them into a tank thinking it was freshwater. I tried to move a few into other tanks as part of the clean up crew, they stay in the low flow area's and were fairly useless. They ate anything I threw in the tanks and were fine with any tank mates I threw them in with.

[IowaReefer]

I keep one in a small tank that I cycle rock in. Used to be a pair, but the male died for unknown reasons (not cycling rock at that time). Personable, active little fish.

[GroktheCube]

My girlfriend put some in her 65. Dripped for about 4 or 5 hours.

She got them hoping they would eat caulerpa, but they only nibble.

[hjawaid]

Acclimated 3 mollies via slow drip for about 3 hrs. Once I put them in, they got beat up by my clowns, who usually arnt that aggressive... The mollies would just keep swimming into their territory... My chromies also picked at them a bit... After a week only 1 survived.. She finally got the hang of the SW environment.. She's pretty healthy... Eats pretty much EVERYthing.. Nibbles on some alge, but not a lot. They are def reef safe from what I've seen.

[mayjong]

cool, sounds like they may not make it in a tank with high flow though...i'll look at some

[Marshall O]

I bought one a while back and acclimated it over the course of several hours. Did just fine in my 46BF which has does have lower flow in it. It was a female and after I had it for about 2-3 months, it gave birth! They go to brine or SW areas to give birth normally anyways, but will still cool to see.

[sushi1517]

I have now gotten a pair of balloon mollies and its taking about 5 hrs to acclimate. almost ready to go in the tank. im worried about a sixline wrass I have in there that I am rehoming on fri, in 2 days. other than that its just a pair of clowns with them.


http://http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q233/kimowen04/th_1470001_10201130016359324_1768369202_n.jpg (http://s137.photobucket.com/user/kimowen04/media/1470001_10201130016359324_1768369202_n.jpg.html)

[sushi1517]

http://s137.photobucket.com/user/kimowen04/media/1470001_10201130016359324_1768369202_n.jpg.html I don't know how to get the pic to show up.

[HumbleFish]

Anyone ever had any disease issues with them in s/w?

Doesn't seem like you would need to QT them as any f/w diseases they are carrying should die once in s/w, but then again.....

[Wilrok]

It tripped me out when the first time I saw black mollies in saltwater section of LFS .

[sdblanshan]

Okay, I acclimated freshwater mollies to full saltwater, SG-1.024 PH-8.0 ... They are the healthier of all the mollies I have... Much happier, stronger, and reproductive than freshwater mollies, they have more fluid and gracefull movements than freshwater mollies and they have no problem forcing away agressive fish such as Chromis and Damsels..... I use a method that is fast and controversial... That said, I bag the mollies and acclimate starting with water they start in setting in the SW TANK - 2.5 cups and every 5 minutes I add 1/2 cup saltwater for 25 minutes and at the 30 minute mark I drop the mollies into full saltwater and leave them for 6 hours, then remove them back to freshwater the same way, then the next day I follow the same procedure to acclimate them to full SW and then release them to the full SW TANK forever, and I have not lost a Molly to this method yet... Its the Blanshan method...and IT WORKS!

Tags for Google: acclimate mollies to saltwater,saltwater mollies,convert mollies to saltwater.

[CedzAquAddictio]

I've got about 8 in my 225g with 6 powerheads and more than 7,000 gph. Livestock include 2 BJ triggers, yellow tang, princess parrotfish, 2 maroon clowns, 2 chromis, and various inverts. I overdid my acclimation, and constantly added 1 liter of SW to a 5g bucket over a week's time until the salinity matched the DT.

The only issue I've encountered was when I first put them in the tank, they hung out close to the overflow, probably because they were scared of the new environment, and wanted to get away from all of the activity. 2 ended up in the overflow (which is no problem because they eat all of the food that goes into the overflow, and keep that area nice and clean). This lead me to move 3 to my sump to keep things clean down there as well. It helps, but is not a total solution...

The remaining mollies reside in the DT with plenty of flow, and large livestock. They were chased for about the first day, but after that the fish ignore them, and they are doing just fine in the DT...

I also have 8 in my 55g mantis tank with several other nano fish. No problems at all there. They are spawning like crazy, and some of the fry are actually surviving instead of being eaten...

Best of Luck!!!

[sdblanshan]

I've got about 8 in my 225g with 6 powerheads and more than 7,000 gph. Livestock include 2 BJ triggers, yellow tang, princess parrotfish, 2 maroon clowns, 2 chromis, and various inverts. I overdid my acclimation, and constantly added 1 liter of SW to a 5g bucket over a week's time until the salinity matched the DT.

The only issue I've encountered was when I first put them in the tank, they hung out close to the overflow, probably because they were scared of the new environment, and wanted to get away from all of the activity. 2 ended up in the overflow (which is no problem because they eat all of the food that goes into the overflow, and keep that area nice and clean). This lead me to move 3 to my sump to keep things clean down there as well. It helps, but is not a total solution...

The remaining mollies reside in the DT with plenty of flow, and large livestock. They were chased for about the first day, but after that the fish ignore them, and they are doing just fine in the DT...

I also have 8 in my 55g mantis tank with several other nano fish. No problems at all there. They are spawning like crazy, and some of the fry are actually surviving instead of being eaten...

Best of Luck!!!

Usually clowns will mame/kill mollies if they get too close to the host anemone does your clown have one? If so keep an eye on that.

[sdblanshan]

Anyone ever had any disease issues with them in s/w?

Doesn't seem like you would need to QT them as any f/w diseases they are carrying should die once in s/w, but then again.....

Mollies are significantly healthier in saltwater and very resistant to the common ailments and diseases that effect mollies kept in freshwater.

[CedzAquAddictio]

Usually clowns will mame/kill mollies if they get too close to the host anemone does your clown have one? If so keep an eye on that.

My clowns will take on anything that goes near the RBTA. The mollies learned this quickly, and no longer venture near the anemone or clowns anymore...

You are right. They also seem to be allot healthier and active than when in FW. They were very boring fish in my FW years, and some seemed to die for no reason at all in FW...

[Sugar Magnolia]

The Petco near me is selling saltwater acclimated mollies now.

[Mranderson]

Okay, I acclimated freshwater mollies to full saltwater, SG-1.024 PH-8.0 ... They are the healthier of all the mollies I have... Much happier, stronger, and reproductive than freshwater mollies, they have more fluid and gracefull movements than freshwater mollies and they have no problem forcing away agressive fish such as Chromis and Damsels..... I use a method that is fast and controversial... That said, I bag the mollies and acclimate starting with water they start in setting in the SW TANK - 2.5 cups and every 5 minutes I add 1/2 cup saltwater for 25 minutes and at the 30 minute mark I drop the mollies into full saltwater and leave them for 6 hours, then remove them back to freshwater the same way, then the next day I follow the same procedure to acclimate them to full SW and then release them to the full SW TANK forever, and I have not lost a Molly to this method yet... Its the Blanshan method...and IT WORKS!

Tags for Google: acclimate mollies to saltwater,saltwater mollies,convert mollies to saltwater.

what's the point of switching back to the original tonic sol'n, once you had them acclimated? Just because? Makes me wonder which fish would live longer. A fw dominated life of a molly, a sw life, or an equally staggered/split lifestyle (visiting both environments regularly).

[sdblanshan]

Well, they aren't actually acclimated to the salinity, but the temperature and ph, the (SW dip) for 6 hours jumpstarts the changes in their kidneys and digestive systems that are responsible for removing the excess salt. Removing them back to freshwater or diluted saltwater prevents severe dehydration and shock and obviously death. The only other way I know to acclimate mollies takes around 10 days (drip) and even with that slow of a drip I have lost entire stocks.
My new method mimics an incoming tide to a freshwater river where the fish retreat to less saline water then venture back to saltier waters after their bodies adjust and prepare for full sw.
You do pose an interesting question tho, I know saltwater mollies are much less likely to suffer the diseases common to the full freshwater mollies, and one point to consider, mollies are brackish meaning they come from pretty salty water, so I would assume the longest living mollies would be found in brackish aquariums.

[sdblanshan]

Now my mollies swim with my fully grown foxface, cleaning his gills and gently picking him clean all over, in return the yellowtail damsels stay away from the mollies because the foxface is the biggest fish in the tank... They mostly stay side by side all day and especially at night.

[ynot65]

Good source of free food as they reproduce quite often