Lyretail mollies, 20 gal so far

[momnatur]

I found a beautiful white lyretail mollie male yesterday along with three spotted (Dalmatian?) females, so they are now swimming contentedly in my 20 gallon tank with a lovely red Betta.

I'm planning on adding an otto or two if I can find any, but I'm undecided what else to put in there (platies, danios, tetras). Would a small crab be something fun to add to the bottom?

Andrea Z and the Z Zoo

[tricksterpup]

Mollies are great fish and love alot of room. So I wouldn't cramp them to much in your tank. So I would only get a few more fish. They will breed very readily for you so you don't have worry about that. You could also add a trio of platies, but i would hold off on the ottos since they would compete for alage with the mollies and platies if you get them.
I have 10 adults in a 55 gallon tank with a ton of fry. My mollies are huge and very happy in a large tank. Feed them plenty of greens, or an alage based flake and they should be very healthy. As for bottom feeders, I would try some amano shrimp or ghost shrimp, these guys do not need to get to land like the crabs do.

Now mollies love clean hard water so you should do weekly water changes. Most people will tell you to add salt, but you should be ok with out salt, as long as your water is hard.
here is a great page for this discussion.
http://tcoletti.tripod.com/molly_salt_debate.html