Acclimating mollies

[gastone]

I would like to add some mollies to my system. Reasons for doing so are: they could help in cleaning the tanks of algae and in the long run I'd like to get an angler. Having a supply of reproducing mollies that are acclimated to salt water would ensure that they are gut loaded with marine algae and the like... hence good nutritional value for the angler. The short of it is, how does one go about acclimating freshwater mollies to full strength saltwater? SG of 1.26.

Garrett.

[Fishfreak218]

keep them in a small tank of FW...every week take out 10% of the FW and then replace it with SW...(it doesnt have to be a small tank..but it will be easier b.c. you ownt need so much water...)
HTH
josh

[Monkeyfish]

Even if the mollies are acclimated to SW they are STILL freshwater fish and will NOT be providing your saltwater fish with the proper nutrition. You're much better off feeding the angler grass shrimp or damsels until you are able to wean him onto prepared foods like lance fish and krill.

[LukFox]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6271207#post6271207 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Monkeyfish
Even if the mollies are acclimated to SW they are STILL freshwater fish and will NOT be providing your saltwater fish with the proper nutrition.

They're actually brackish water fish and can not thrive in freshwater.

[Fishfreak218]

very true^^^^...its hard to keep them in full FW....i tried...a ton of times...now i am breeding 'em ...(sorta...accidentally)

[gastone]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6271207#post6271207 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Monkeyfish
Even if the mollies are acclimated to SW they are STILL freshwater fish and will NOT be providing your saltwater fish with the proper nutrition. You're much better off feeding the angler grass shrimp or damsels until you are able to wean him onto prepared foods like lance fish and krill.

I thought if they were acclimated to a SW environment and eating marine algae and nori and the like that certainly they would be a satisfactory, if not beneficial alternative to say goldfish.

How about ghost shrimp? My local fish store distributes them as FW. I'm assuming they can be acclimated to SW. Is this a similar process?

Garrett.

[dbulick]

Yes, this is a very simliar set of circumstances. While mollies wouldn't be as good as feeding damsels they still are an acceptable substitue untill you can ween them to eating prepared foods.

[Monkeyfish]

Ok... mollies are brackish water fish. When was the last time you saw a school of mollies swimming in the ocean? ;). They will not provide the lionfish with the appropriate nutrition, but I guess they are better than goldfish.

[ManEatingGuppy]

i have 3 large mollies in SW, i just threw them in the sw tank, nothing bad so far had them in there for about a month now. they will act weird at the start but then they will start getting use to the salt. not telling you to do this, dont wanna get ur fish killed, but just sharing my experience with mollies.

[Confooseld]

Ok... mollies are brackish water fish. When was the last time you saw a school of mollies swimming in the ocean? Never SEEN it but I've heard of wild sailfin mollies swimming along the mangroves of the Florida coast.

[majestic sea life]

haha, when i added one in mine i just added a cup of water every 10min. And i had it for almost 2 years now.

[LukFox]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6279497#post6279497 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Confooseld
Never SEEN it but I've heard of wild sailfin mollies swimming along the mangroves of the Florida coast.

I've heard that too. Also, if you're going to go for mollies, sailfins like saltier water and actually need it more than other mollies. Most mollies can tolerate freshwater for a time before succumbing to a weakened immune system. However the sailfins rarely ever do well in freshwater for any time period.

[Chad Vossen]

i just put the new mollies into a small bucket within a 5 gallon bucket. had some air hose with a valve to controle water. i use the hose to drip water from main tank to the small bucket with mollies.

took me 3 hours to get my mollies into the saltwater tank. and took them 20 minutes to go back to fresh. i was going to feed them to a knife fish but changed my mind and put themwith my guppies.

[BodiBuilt]

I bought {3} adult Mollies (one male,two fat/pregnant female) and proceeded acclimation in a 5g over a two week period. Meanwhile...the first female had{8}babies within{3}days,the second had{29?}babies before I transferred them into display! I now have at least a dozen pregnant female's(who's babies I intend to trade back to LFS).:love1:

[stykthyn]

I live in nw florida and the sailfins are thick here. my lionfish loves em. I love living by the beach :)

[listen_to_slaye]

sorry to sound harsh, but mollies are so damn hardy i just pulled them out of the bag of fresh water into the SW tank, they may have stressed then loved it, then i moved them to my FW tank and just chucked them in, they are still fine.

[Wiggawam]

Just chuck them in, they will be fine.

[gastone]

What kind of mollies do you guys recommend? I've heard sailfin are good, any others?

G.

[hooterhead]

I'd go with the sailfins.

[00nothing]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0603/00nothing/20051017017.jpg

Fully saltwater brought them home fresh tossed them in and they stayed like that for 2 months till they completly and i do mean completly dissapeared i think my purple reef lobster got them since they were such slow swimmers

[emperora]

to acclimate them ,set up a drip tube ,it takes about six hours taking some water out of the bucket ,every so often ,one word of caution, they breed like rabbits, i got about twenty to cycle my take ,and even with die off ,and the few my wrasse and trigger gnawed on i still have twenty of the darn things ,there are never any more babies in the tank ,because the huma and lunare eat them as soon as they find out they are there!! i have the black mollies and if you want some ,you can have them!you just have to come and get them.

[Myka]

So are Sailfin Mollies actually a nutritious food source? If so, why doesn't everyone have a few of them in their tanks producing live food for anemones, fish, etc???

[John@JP]

I have seen them swimming on reefs near Colon Panama. And I have just thrown them in saltwater and they were fine. They lived for like 6 months and had a bunch of babies.

[Godoftheseas]

yeah im with the guy up a few, are mollies actually ok food sources for sw predators? if so i might have to breed some for my vol. lion cause he just went through like 10 guppies in about 3 seconds.

[John@JP]

I believe that you should stick with food from the ocean, but unless you live by the shore, livebearers would be better than goldfish by far. Especially gut loaded.

[emperora]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7172168#post7172168 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Godoftheseas
yeah im with the guy up a few, are mollies actually ok food sources for sw predators? if so i might have to breed some for my vol. lion cause he just went through like 10 guppies in about 3 seconds.
black mollies breed like rabbits ,actually i think rabbits breed like black mollies ,you would always have a supply if you breed them and they'll eat just about anything that will fit into their mouths!

[Godoftheseas]

Do you think a pair would do ok in my 30 gallon with 2 tr percs, coral beauty, LMB. Also are these things reef safe.
thanks for the input