Black Molly Experiment

[bmoore92]

So I've been reading up on freshwater mollies eating hair algae and figured I'd give it a shot. I've had a hair algae problem for a while and I've just recently started running gfo.

I bought 6 freshwater Mollie's and acclimated them and they are already pecking away. I'll post current pics and then pictures of the progress periodically.

Here are some current pictures

 

[markak]

You are acclimateing Black Mollies to saltwater?

 

[bmoore92]

Yes. They're naturally brackish and it's been done on other threads. They apparently help with hair algae.

 

[markak]

Can all Mollies live in saltwater? There are some nice looking Mollies out there,

 

[bmoore92]

Not sure about that. I would assume the whole species can acclimate to full salt.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Yes, Mollies can survive Saltwater. I've got some in my tank, had em for a bit now. They do peck away at any algae they come across.

 

[jhoop]

I have had black mollies for about a year. They even breed a lot. I bought two and now have about six. They do peck at algae. I did loose a male about a month ago bought a new one. Just added saltwater to the fresh he came in. About 45 minutes. Adding a little at a time. He went right in the tank and was swimming with the others. They get along great with the 2 clarkii clowns.

 

[bmoore92]

Sadly I've already lost 4/6 fish. I acclimated for about 2 hours adding small amounts of tank water to the floating fish bag every 15 minutes. Not real sure why they aren't making it. I have observed them picking the algae so if they can make it then it seems like a viable option for algae removal.

 

[Mustang Man]

I acclimated 1 in about 45min once and he was in there for a few months until he just randomly disappeared. I'm pretty sure he may have jumped and either my cat or dog picked it up off the ground before I could find the body.

 

[Ick_Magnet]

Sadly I've already lost 4/6 fish. I acclimated for about 2 hours adding small amounts of tank water to the floating fish bag every 15 minutes. Not real sure why they aren't making it. I have observed them picking the algae so if they can make it then it seems like a viable option for algae removal.

If you buy them from a Petco or have been going to the same LFS for them try another source. I see sickly mollies at a lot of shops.

 

[The-Russ]

Im looking forward to this. Im bumping along.

 

[Fishie]

i acclimated mollies over several hours once ...and they took to the reef fine...but they were just dumb...swam into vortechs and died...
i don't think freshwater has the perils of a saltwater tank...which explains why they swim from one end to the next and turn around.