mollys and guppies in a reef tank

[reef4life!!!]

So lately i am looking into freshwater fishes as a substitute for saltwater fishes and found the idea of mollys.Initially i made a 20litre tank with saltwater and acclimated my mollys.They were there about a month until i lost a female molly and i have no idea what could have happened.Could be nitrites or ammonia that killed the fish because i just used water from my reef tank so maybe the tank couldn't handle them or kidney failure killed it.Anyway i place the remaining 2 in my reef tank and 3 days later my black male died.Again i have no idea why.So far only 1 female lives and yesterday i bought 1 male and 1 more female and acclimated them to the tank.Also 2-3 days ago i've read that guppies can live in saltwater too and i am intrigued to try them.
My questions are:
1) For those who keep mollys,what salinity you have them?
2)Does anyone ever kept guppies in saltwater and if yes at what salinity.
3) So far my mollies cannot compete the other fishes for food because they don't know when is feeding time so they just stay in the bottom.I am only feeding small quantities and my 3 other fishes eat them pretty fast.Do you think that the mollys can live with no food but just algae in a 65gallon reef tank with live rock?

 

[attiland]

So lately i am looking into freshwater fishes as a substitute for saltwater fishes and found the idea of mollys.Initially i made a 20litre tank with saltwater and acclimated my mollys.They were there about a month until i lost a female molly and i have no idea what could have happened.Could be nitrites or ammonia that killed the fish because i just used water from my reef tank so maybe the tank couldn't handle them or kidney failure killed it.Anyway i place the remaining 2 in my reef tank and 3 days later my black male died.Again i have no idea why.So far only 1 female lives and yesterday i bought 1 male and 1 more female and acclimated them to the tank.Also 2-3 days ago i've read that guppies can live in saltwater too and i am intrigued to try them.
My questions are:
1) For those who keep mollys,what salinity you have them?
2)Does anyone ever kept guppies in saltwater and if yes at what salinity.
3) So far my mollies cannot compete the other fishes for food because they don't know when is feeding time so they just stay in the bottom.I am only feeding small quantities and my 3 other fishes eat them pretty fast.Do you think that the mollys can live with no food but just algae in a 65gallon reef tank with live rock?

Let’s get the basics out of way. Molies live in both fresh and brackish water. They do venture out to sea but they don’t last long there always returns to lower salinity areas in the wild.
guppies on the other hand don’t do this. I have no doubt someone managed to put them in salt water before but I personally would not recommend either of them to put in the reef as they won’t last that long at all as per what I have seen here in posts but I know from first hand experience they would last 3-4 years in freshwater.
Sorry this is my personal opinion- they don’t belong to the reef

 

[mjh712]

I think the life expectancy drops a bit, but people have done both.

Saltwater Guppies?

So I've been reading around, and apparently many people have tried acclimating guppies over the span of a few days, and not only have they had success keeping them, but they even breed in the saltwater! Imagine those ultra colorful cobra guppies swimming between the branches of your SPS colonies...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[MugenReef95]

ive had success with balloon mollys and never had a problem with them i just fed the whole tank twice a day and they would get some bites in lol

 

[reef4life!!!]

ive had success with balloon mollys and never had a problem with them i just fed the whole tank twice a day and they would get some bites in lol

hmm yeah mine need to get used to my feeding i suppose...

Let’s get the basics out of way. Molies live in both fresh and brackish water. They do venture out to sea but they don’t last long there always returns to lower salinity areas in the wild.
guppies on the other hand don’t do this. I have no doubt someone managed to put them in salt water before but I personally would not recommend either of them to put in the reef as they won’t last that long at all as per what I have seen here in posts but I know from first hand experience they would last 3-4 years in freshwater.
Sorry this is my personal opinion- they don’t belong to the reef

Well i don't wait from them to live 2-3 years.I would be happy if they could live about a year and just reproduce so i can just keep doing this circle.Babies mean food for the tank and some extra babies for reproducing again and keep the circle going.

 

[vtecintegra]

I've got a black molly in my tank. It was in my quarantine observation while I was running fish through. It eats with everything else. It tends to hang out in a lower flow area. 1.026. I don't really seeing it eating any algae unless it's doing it at night. It eats mysis, krill, plankton, and fish eggs. Looks pretty plump. No idea about guppies.

 

[reef4life!!!]

I've got a black molly in my tank. It was in my quarantine observation while I was running fish through. It eats with everything else. It tends to hang out in a lower flow area. 1.026. I don't really seeing it eating any algae unless it's doing it at night. It eats mysis, krill, plankton, and fish eggs. Looks pretty plump. No idea about guppies.

interesting..low long did you have him in 1.026 salinity?

 

[Doctorgori]

I got both…mollies in the frag and guppies in my macro algae tank….
I’ve had p.picta in full salt also
I’m not aware or have noticed any life expectancy decrease. As far as salinity , mine are in 35ppt.
Feeder guppies I just dump in, usually they have fungus, columnaris et, so you might have losses.
Mollies I drip acclimate with few problems
Monos, scats are also cool in sw

 

[jft]

I have Black and gold mollies in my reef tank for over 8 months, NO problems and are aggressive feeders so they are doing well. Don t believe They cannot SURVIVE they do and lots of people have done it!

 

[reef4life!!!]

I got both…mollies in the frag and guppies in my macro algae tank….
I’ve had p.picta in full salt also
I’m not aware or have noticed any life expectancy decrease. As far as salinity , mine are in 35ppt.
Feeder guppies I just dump in, usually they have fungus, columnaris et, so you might have losses.
Mollies I drip acclimate with few problems
Monos, scats are also cool in sw

35ppt? that;s nice to hear.i currently lowered my salinity from 1.026 to 1.024 and i wll slowly bring it up and see their reaction.As for guppies what acclimation did you do?

 

[reef4life!!!]

@jft @Doctorgori so did you guys breed them in saltwater?

 

[InvertGang]

So lately i am looking into freshwater fishes as a substitute for saltwater fishes and found the idea of mollys.Initially i made a 20litre tank with saltwater and acclimated my mollys.They were there about a month until i lost a female molly and i have no idea what could have happened.Could be nitrites or ammonia that killed the fish because i just used water from my reef tank so maybe the tank couldn't handle them or kidney failure killed it.Anyway i place the remaining 2 in my reef tank and 3 days later my black male died.Again i have no idea why.So far only 1 female lives and yesterday i bought 1 male and 1 more female and acclimated them to the tank.Also 2-3 days ago i've read that guppies can live in saltwater too and i am intrigued to try them.
My questions are:
1) For those who keep mollys,what salinity you have them?
2)Does anyone ever kept guppies in saltwater and if yes at what salinity.
3) So far my mollies cannot compete the other fishes for food because they don't know when is feeding time so they just stay in the bottom.I am only feeding small quantities and my 3 other fishes eat them pretty fast.Do you think that the mollys can live with no food but just algae in a 65gallon reef tank with live rock?

What's the process to acclimate them?

 

[reef4life!!!]

What's the process to acclimate them?

you talk about mollys ? if yes then what i did was 3-4 hours of acclimation and just put them in. Leave the bag 20-30 minutes to your tank to acclimate the temperature and then just add a little bit of saltwater in their bag over time until you have doubled their freshwater with saltwaater.

Note* My way could be wrong or it might not work for you because i've read that they need over 6-7 hours of acclimation so do a little bit of reasearch if you are looking to put mollys in a saltwater

 

[Doctorgori]

35ppt? that;s nice to hear.i currently lowered my salinity from 1.026 to 1.024 and i wll slowly bring it up and see their reaction.As for guppies what acclimation did you do?

Acclimation you say? feeder guppies....10 for 1$ ? not sure the truth will be of value here
Yes they breed like guppies in 35ppt, but for the bother I'd spend the bucks and cop some endlers or Poecilia picta off of Aquabid or somewhere ...if you watch the livebearers section it won't take long for some brackish type poecilia to show up. I've got upward $15 - $30 for "species type" wild livebearers like swamp guppies et .... I thought I had Micropoecilia branneri in brackish water ...

​

 

[jft]

@jft @Doctorgori so did you guys breed them in saltwater?

My mollies breed successfullly on a regular basis in my reef tank but us ally get eaten unless they end up in sump first where I save them.

 

[Doctorgori]

My mollies breed successfullly on a regular basis in my reef tank but us ally get eaten unless they end up in sump first where I save them.

yeah same, not many mollies make it....but the guppies sheer numbers can overwhelm the predators... they seem to increase in population always somehow

 

[InvertGang]

Acclimation you say? feeder guppies....10 for 1$ ? not sure the truth will be of value here
Yes they breed like guppies in 35ppt, but for the bother I'd spend the bucks and cop some endlers or Poecilia picta off of Aquabid or somewhere ...if you watch the livebearers section it won't take long for some brackish type poecilia to show up. I've got upward $15 - $30 for "species type" wild livebearers like swamp guppies et .... I thought I had Micropoecilia branneri in brackish water ...

​

Are endlers able to be acclimated too then? I have a batch I was going to see if I could take in for store credit or something. I have a super hardy strain too. They descend from those that lived through a total tank collapse when I had to abandon my work fishtank for several months due to covid.

 

[reef4life!!!]

yeah same, not many mollies make it....but the guppies sheer numbers can overwhelm the predators... they seem to increase in population always somehow

well that's good news..I want them to breed so they can feed ccorals and my leopard wrasse.I could potentially get my other small tank up and running again to let them breed there and keep some babies there to grow up.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

I'm currently acclimating a single female guppy right now, doing the 5 day salinity increase method since I'd really like her to live. So far she's 2 days in and she's acting normal. Salinity is still really low in her tank though. I'll report back in a few days when she's in the tank, so we can have more reports of either success or failure. She's a virgin female, born in my tank and separated so I know there's no fry chances, but I like thier tendency to peck at algae and copepods. She previously kept my neocaridina shrimp tank free from surplus pests.

 

[reef4life!!!]

I'm currently acclimating a single female guppy right now, doing the 5 day salinity increase method since I'd really like her to live. So far she's 2 days in and she's acting normal. Salinity is still really low in her tank though. I'll report back in a few days when she's in the tank, so we can have more reports of either success or failure. She's a virgin female, born in my tank and separated so I know there's no fry chances, but I like thier tendency to peck at algae and copepods. She previously kept my neocaridina shrimp tank free from surplus pests.

oh that's actually perfect.Let us know what happens the next days