6 week fallow finished

[cor4eyh]

Just finished my fallow period after losing a few fish from velvet. I went to the lfs last night and got some black mollies hoping to check before I put my quarantined and last surviving fish from the DT.
Bought 3 lyre tail mollies as the black mollies had ich and were sick already.
Within a few hours all 3 mollies were stuck agains the overflow. Dead. Don’t think they acclimated well. They didn’t appear to have anything on their bodies as of yet. But I’m guessing just try again with some more mollies or trust that my fallow was successful?

I drop acclimated them over 3 hours with a heater in the tank to keep the same temp.

I’ve read the black mollies, sailfin mollies, and balloon mollies are the best to transition to salt water.

is there any other way to transition mollies to salt?

or other ways to test for velvet and ick?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Were the mollies from a freshwater tank or saltwater - sounds like they didn’t acclimate well, velvet takes more than a few hours to kill.
Six weeks should be enough for velvet, but in the event of ich, at least 45 days at 81 degrees is needed, 60 days minimum at regular temperature. I’d hold it out till then just to be safe.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Just finished my fallow period after losing a few fish from velvet. I went to the lfs last night and got some black mollies hoping to check before I put my quarantined and last surviving fish from the DT.
Bought 3 lyre tail mollies as the black mollies had ich and were sick already.
Within a few hours all 3 mollies were stuck agains the overflow. Dead. Don’t think they acclimated well. They didn’t appear to have anything on their bodies as of yet. But I’m guessing just try again with some more mollies or trust that my fallow was successful?

I drop acclimated them over 3 hours with a heater in the tank to keep the same temp.

I’ve read the black mollies, sailfin mollies, and balloon mollies are the best to transition to salt water.

is there any other way to transition mollies to salt?

or other ways to test for velvet and ick?

You need to bring the mollies from FW up to full strength seawater over 3 to 5 days, so that requires an intermediate tank.
I’d just avoid that whole step in the process, it’s a cool idea but what if the mollies arrive with brackish diseases? Also, this trick really only works for ich, since the white spots show up so well on mollies.
Six weeks is a bit shorter than the recommended minimum fallow period at 81 degrees. If your tank is cooler than that, I’d opt for 60 days.
Jay

 

[cor4eyh]

You need to bring the mollies from FW up to full strength seawater over 3 to 5 days, so that requires an intermediate tank.
I’d just avoid that whole step in the process, it’s a cool idea but what if the mollies arrive with brackish diseases? Also, this trick really only works for ich, since the white spots show up so well on mollies.
Six weeks is a bit shorter than the recommended minimum fallow period at 81 degrees. If your tank is cooler than that, I’d opt for 60 days.
Jay

So you recommend just tossing my fish back into the DT?
I never had ich only velvet. And it’s been well over 6 weeks.
Was just getting close to time and wanted to know for sure if this problem is solved.

sounds like it’s time to put my clowns back in their home.

 

[killer2001]

You need to bring the mollies from FW up to full strength seawater over 3 to 5 days, so that requires an intermediate tank.

I know its advised to bring saltwater fish from hypo to full SW levels in 3 to 5 days but not sure the same time frame applies to FW mollies. I acclimated my FW black molly from FW to full SW in 6 hours and she is still alive and thriving today.

The issue I found with mollies is introducing them into a high / random flow reef environment from their usual freshwater 10 gallon tanks with a single sponge filter (no flow). Another thought is since freshwater can hold more dissolved oxygen than saltwater, I feel often times people who are setting up new tanks who are converting mollies probably don't have aeration quite right yet, so the molly not only is adjusting to the salinity but now has to accommodate for a high flow environment and lower oxygenated water, its a recipe for disaster.

Again this is just my experience thus far with mollies and the conversion.

 

[Sharkbait19]

So you recommend just tossing my fish back into the DT?
I never had ich only velvet. And it’s been well over 6 weeks.
Was just getting close to time and wanted to know for sure if this problem is solved.

sounds like it’s time to put my clowns back in their home.

For safety I’d still go for the 60 days - you don’t know if any ich was mixed in.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I know its advised to bring saltwater fish from hypo to full SW levels in 3 to 5 days but not sure the same time frame applies to FW mollies. I acclimated my FW black molly from FW to full SW in 6 hours and she is still alive and thriving today.

The issue I found with mollies is introducing them into a high / random flow reef environment from their usual freshwater 10 gallon tanks with a single sponge filter (no flow). Another thought is since freshwater can hold more dissolved oxygen than saltwater, I feel often times people who are setting up new tanks who are converting mollies probably don't have aeration quite right yet, so the molly not only is adjusting to the salinity but now has to accommodate for a high flow environment and lower oxygenated water, its a recipe for disaster.

Again this is just my experience thus far with mollies and the conversion.

It depends - if the mollies start off with some salt in their water (0.25% or so) it goes much easier. The ending salinity is also an issue - taking them to a specific gravity of 1.022 is much easier than to 1.025. Also, there is a big difference between P. sphenops, and P. latipinna. The latter handle the change much better. Then there is simple variability - I once had a toddler in a pet store catch a Mozambique mouthbrooder and drop it from full fresh to 1.020 seawater and it lived just fine.


Jay

 

[exnisstech]

I acclimate mollies 5-7 days. I use old water from water changes. I've read of it bring done over a matter of hours but I've never been in a hurry to get mollies into a tank.

Did you treat your one surviving fish?

 

[killer2001]

It depends - if the mollies start off with some salt in their water (0.25% or so) it goes much easier. The ending salinity is also an issue - taking them to a specific gravity of 1.022 is much easier than to 1.025. Also, there is a big difference between P. sphenops, and P. latipinna. The latter handle the change much better. Then there is simple variability - I once had a toddler in a pet store catch a Mozambique mouthbrooder and drop it from full fresh to 1.020 seawater and it lived just fine.


Jay

Yeah, with P.latipinna I was able to go from 1.000 to 1.026 in 6 hours. And I was monitoring every 30 minutes for any signs of stress. Surprisingly, I also got the fish to eat during the acclimation process which I was not expecting.

 

[cor4eyh]

I know its advised to bring saltwater fish from hypo to full SW levels in 3 to 5 days but not sure the same time frame applies to FW mollies. I acclimated my FW black molly from FW to full SW in 6 hours and she is still alive and thriving today.

The issue I found with mollies is introducing them into a high / random flow reef environment from their usual freshwater 10 gallon tanks with a single sponge filter (no flow). Another thought is since freshwater can hold more dissolved oxygen than saltwater, I feel often times people who are setting up new tanks who are converting mollies probably don't have aeration quite right yet, so the molly not only is adjusting to the salinity but now has to accommodate for a high flow environment and lower oxygenated water, its a recipe for disaster.

Again this is just my experience thus far with mollies and the conversion.

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to go to a different fish store and try again maybe with some more healthy Molly’s and drip acclimate for longer. I was surprised that out of 3, 0 survived.
I just really want to be sure about the tank being fallow and not adding my two clowns back and have to start again.

thanks for your input.

 

[cor4eyh]

Yeah, with P.latipinna I was able to go from 1.000 to 1.026 in 6 hours. And I was monitoring every 30 minutes for any signs of stress. Surprisingly, I also got the fish to eat during the acclimation process which I was not expecting.

These mollies were eating within the first hour of being full salt.

they seemed healthy until I went back after lights out and saw all 3 sucked against the overflow.
More information in regards to the tank. I have many snails and a cleaner shrimp still in the tank and happy.

all of these inverts are doing very well.

I do have anemones also doing well could they have gotten stung from my higher flow? And then died lol.

poor fish.

 

[cor4eyh]

I acclimate mollies 5-7 days. I use old water from water changes. I've read of it bring done over a matter of hours but I've never been in a hurry to get mollies into a tank.

Did you treat your one surviving fish?

I did treat my 1 clown and while I was treating him got another clown and figured I could treat them together. They are happy and healthy in the qt tank now with no copper and just getting fed every day fat lil ***** lol

 

[killer2001]

These mollies were eating within the first hour of being full salt.

they seemed healthy until I went back after lights out and saw all 3 sucked against the overflow.

Yes, they will over-exert themselves in a reef environment. Anytime you go to a fish store to buy freshwater mollies they are usually in a 10 gallon tank with just a basic sponge filter, there is no flow. Then you drop them in full saltwater and all these currents are rushing about in random directions... it's a different type of stress for sure lol.

 

[GARRIGA]

I’ve brought mollies from FW to full strength over the course of two days. Some have reported drop and plop success. I know my way works.

I used red eye Sailfin but research told me that green wild type Sailfin the best to survive the transition yet to test ich the black mollies are the best option for visually confirming.

Color doesn’t matter with velvet. Death confirms that. Although that I’m basing on research since luckily I’ve never had that.

Perhaps play it safe with black mollies and convert them over a week. My approach was to raise salinity by 6 ppt every couple of hours. Could do two of those per day spread over 12 hours. See how they react and as salinity rises might do every 8 hour and get three treatments in per day.

Mine showed some stress as I increased the dosages but survived none the less.