Are all species of mollies compatible?

True, there are anti caking agents present that can be harmful to fish. But as Happychem points out, for aquarium dosages, they are found in quantities less than that acceptable for natural streams and water ways by the EPA.
Happy said:
From the FDA website: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scrip...=21:3.0.1.1.3.5

Quote:
Originally Posted by FDA re: YPS
(b) The additive is used or intended for use as an anticaking agent in salt and as an adjuvant in the production of dendritic crystals of salt in an amount needed to produce its intended effect but not in excess of 13 parts per million calculated as anhydrous sodium ferrocyanide.



So if YPS is used as an anti-caking agent, the amount of YPS in an aquarium treated with salt containing YPS would be no greater than 13 ppb (parts per billion)

The maximum allowable concentration - by EPA regs - in streams is 2 ppm based on fish toxicity. While toxic exposure levels vary greatly from species to species, if one has faith in the EPA, 2 ppm should be the maximum safe level for the most fragile species. Now if we make the leap from temperate species to tropical species and assume the same limit, we see that the amounts in our aquaria would be less than 20 times lower than the maximum allowable limit.
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Of course, this is just information being passed on for review. The debate of weather mollies need brackish water or hard FW would have nothing to do with sodium chloride. :rolleyes:
 
Ok I want to dispell one myth here, many people believe that Mollies need salt. Wrong, this is a myth in the hobby. Most new strains of mollies are purely breed in freshwater so salt is bad for them. So sumthin fishy is correct.

Here is one of my earilier posts.

The reason why most live bearers are kept with salt in their water because it will help them tolerate many bad conditions, few water changes and over stocking conditions. Most live bearers, this includes mollies, do NOT need salt to their water. Depending on the species, hard or soft will work for them.
here is a great article to check out on the great molly debate that I post every once in awhile.
http://tcoletti.tripod.com/molly_salt_debate.html
This is a very helpful read for everyone with live bearers.
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Also mollies require alot of room to move around. For a small fish they do have large tank requirements. I do not keep mollies in anything under a 20 gallon. But if you have anything more than a pair you will need a larger tank.
Feeding requirements is plenty of vegies or greens in their diet.
 
as long as they are all addjustided to the same salinity
 
fIsHy13 said:
... Along with normal tropical fish flake food, I feed food for bottom dwelling fish. This food has algea in it, but do I still have to but real plants for them to eat?

... Do mollies like to live in shoals?
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The mollies shouldn't need live plants to eat in order to thrive (but live plants do make a nice addition to any tank!). The flake staple is good, but try and remember to give them the ocassional snacks. Variety is the spice of life, as they say.

Now I'm not 100% sure on this, but I don't think mollies really need to live in full-fledged shoals. They seem to be okay solo, but I think if I were a molly, I'd want a friend or two of my own sort to hang out with. Try getting a trio if you have enough room-- two females to a single male, preferably.
 
mandimoron said:
Now I'm not 100% sure on this, but I don't think mollies really need to live in full-fledged shoals. They seem to be okay solo, but I think if I were a molly, I'd want a friend or two of my own sort to hang out with. Try getting a trio if you have enough room-- two females to a single male, preferably.
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Actually, most live bearers, along with Mollies are schoolers and do prefer to be in a Shoal. I usually keep about 4-5 together, usually 1 male and 4 females.
 
Truth about mollies

This has been discussed over and over but lets get the molly story straight. There are only three species of mollies sold and all are hybrids of those three. Poeciliidae Sphenops, Velifera and Latipinna. The old old black molly was the short finned sphenops but the strain became weak in the aquarium trade due to inbreeding so stores began to sell only the longer finned hybrids of sphenops and the sailfin mollies velifera and latipinna. Now u can sometimes find wild sphenops or yucatan mollies but most all mollies sold are hybrids of two or all three of the species. All of them have the same color morphs... black, white, silver, red, orange, yellow, brown, green, blue flecks, and anything in between. The different shapes can be found in all of them too... short finned, sail finned, lyritail, balloon.

Mollies are peaceful fish. Like any fish u can get the random male who can be a bully. But overall mollies get along with any fish that wont eat it. Ideally mollies do best with fish that alos like hard alkaline water. Mollies don't "school" but they are very gregarious fish who need the company of other mollies. You must have two females to every male. Great tank mates are guppies, platies, and swordtails.

Mollies DONT need salt. Its a myth that wont go away. Salt is pushed by the aquarium trade. Aquarium salt isn't even the kind of salt mollies would be found in, that would be marine salt. As I spoke of before, for a while the black mollies became a weaker species because of so much industry in breeding. So people found that the addition of salt would keep them alive longer and fight diseases and fungus. Really salt just covers up and delays the effects of poor water conditions. Mollies live very happily and for a long time with no salt. The salt myth stays because in the wild mollies are found in freshwater, brackish, and even open ocean. They have developed this adaption because they live in areas of frequent flooding and often get swept out into the ocean. You can adapt your mollies to full saltwater and keep them in a reef tank. Mollies main habitat though is freshwater. If anything abou adding salt, mollies benefit from the added hardness so marine salt or cichlid salt would be much more benefitial to add than aquarium salt. Adding aquarium salt is basically useless.
 
Teelie said:
Al Mollies are the same species as far as I know, like all goldfish (comet, fantail, shubunkin, etc) are though they have been genetically bred to exhibit different traits so they should be compatible and able to interbreed.
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I know this is a thread about mollies, but I'd like to make a little clarification here -- even though these fish are genetically related and descend from the carp, they should not be kept together and are not compatible tank mates.

This is not to say that they cannot interbreed, I don't know if they can or not, but they should not be kept in the same tank together which kinda nixes the entire idea.

Pond goldfish are fairly aggressive and fast moving and they can and will harrass Fancy Goldfish and kill them. Fancy Goldfish can also be aggressive and move a lot faster than a Very Fancy. They also exhibit the same behavior with slower goldfish as the pond type does and will harass a Very Fancy goldfish. Usually to death.

Just wanted to clarify because they are not the same as mollies in regards to behavior at all.

Roan
 
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