Copepod and black mollies

haanstang · Aug 10, 2017

I don't know if anybody has touched on this subject but most of us would like a thriving copepod population that sustains itself inside of our reef systems. And depending on the fish that you have it will vary in the population. And most of us know that black mollies are actually a brackish water fish and will live in either freshwater or salt water. In a saltwater tank they are great for algae control. And they breed like rabbits. This fish being a livebearer I was wondering if anybody had thought of keeping multiple females with one male for algae control and for another food source for our fish that consume the copepods? I know it would not be a consistent food source unless you had a great number of females and the other downside I see is if all the Fry do not get eaten you end up with more mollies then you want.
Does anybody have thoughts on this matter?

Mordwrath · Aug 10, 2017

haanstang said:
I don't know if anybody has touched on this subject but most of us would like a thriving copepod population that sustains itself inside of our reef systems. And depending on the fish that you have it will vary in the population. And most of us know that black mollies are actually a brackish water fish and will live in either freshwater or salt water. In a saltwater tank they are great for algae control. And they breed like rabbits. This fish being a livebearer I was wondering if anybody had thought of keeping multiple females with one male for algae control and for another food source for our fish that consume the copepods? I know it would not be a consistent food source unless you had a great number of females and the other downside I see is if all the Fry do not get eaten you end up with more mollies then you want.
Does anybody have thoughts on this matter?

I've actually just started an experiment in a established 46g tank with copious amounts of algae - green hair, bryopsis, various macro algae of different sources and so far all 5 Molly's are ignoring all algae. I started feeding them after feeling bad for the skinny fish going hungry. I gave them a week and still none are interested in algae of any kind. It's been 3 weeks now and still feed them at the end of the week when the fish are clearly not grazing. I'll update if this changes but it appears "it depends on the fish". Mine clearly will not be algae eaters or rock grazers

haanstang · Aug 10, 2017

Mordwrath said:
I've actually just started an experiment in a established 46g tank with copious amounts of algae - green hair, bryopsis, various macro algae of different sources and so far all 5 Molly's are ignoring all algae. I started feeding them after feeling bad for the skinny fish going hungry. I gave them a week and still none are interested in algae of any kind. It's been 3 weeks now and still feed them at the end of the week when the fish are clearly not grazing. I'll update if this changes but it appears "it depends on the fish". Mine clearly will not be algae eaters or rock grazers

That's disappointing. I know that I read somewhere that they do. Maybe it is individual fish. Do you have a thread for this? Keep us updated
I'm still wondering about the fry being a good source of food or just not worth the effort.

Mordwrath · Aug 10, 2017

haanstang said:
That's disappointing. I know that I read somewhere that they do. Maybe it is individual fish. Do you have a thread for this? Keep us updated
I'm still wondering about the fry being a good source of food or just not worth the effort.

No thread yet. I also have several Cardnials in tank too, so my thought was baby Molly's would be controlled by the hunters (adult PJ and Banggai) and they would be fed by live food. Granted I have tanks on standby ready to separate any fish from aggression. Molly female or Cardinal to Molly's. So far everything is peaceful but I've kept African Cichilds for 15 yrs now and no that peacefull to Royal rumble can happen overnight. I didn't think I'd like the black Mollies in The reef but they do have a very beautiful contrast when swimming in front of colorful soft corals

eatbreakfast · Aug 11, 2017

Molly reproducing slows down in full reef water. Most mollies available for sale are hybrids of species that are brackish and species that are freshwater. Though they do well in reef water, that is in part why they don't reproduce well.

Even if they do have babies, they will never be copepods, as copepods are crustaceans and mollies are fish.

haanstang · Aug 11, 2017

eatbreakfast said:
Molly reproducing slows down in full reef water. Most mollies available for sale are hybrids of species that are brackish and species that are freshwater. Though they do well in reef water, that is in part why they don't reproduce well.

Even if they do have babies, they will never be copepods, as copepods are crustaceans and mollies are fish.

Thanks for the info.
I wasn't suggesting that the fry would actually turn into copepods. I was referring to them being another small food source like copepods.

SallyWho · Aug 12, 2017

Mordwrath said:
I've actually just started an experiment in a established 46g tank with copious amounts of algae - green hair, bryopsis, various macro algae of different sources and so far all 5 Molly's are ignoring all algae. I started feeding them after feeling bad for the skinny fish going hungry. I gave them a week and still none are interested in algae of any kind. It's been 3 weeks now and still feed them at the end of the week when the fish are clearly not grazing. I'll update if this changes but it appears "it depends on the fish". Mine clearly will not be algae eaters or rock grazers

That's disappointing. I was hoping that when I eventually set up a frag tank I could use mollies as algae control, since it'll likely be too small for a grazing tang or foxface.

Mordwrath · Aug 12, 2017

SallyWho said:
That's disappointing. I was hoping that when I eventually set up a frag tank I could use mollies as algae control, since it'll likely be too small for a grazing tang or foxface.

I wouldn't give up. Try and find some young Mollies locally that look hungry. Others have had success with them but mine do not like the reef algae. Or try the court jester gobie or a blennie

Mordwrath · Aug 25, 2017

Well today I officially removed the Mollies from the Reef and placed them in my freshwater aquarium. They immediately started grazing on the FW algae. They did not grazers or eat the Marine algae I had available for them to eat. Mostly just skimmed the top of the water. My experiment is closed for Mollies in a reef.