Mollies (OrionGirl from another thread)

A

ArkyLady

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Nov 27, 2002
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Originally posted by OrionGirl
Mollies are NOT easy fish. They need very hard water to do well.
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OrionGirl are mollies really that hard to keep? I've only had mine a few months, but they seem to be doing fine so far even though I have really soft water. I have one male and three females, two of the females are about to have their second set of babies with the third not too far behind. Out of the hundreds they had, around 8 have survived so far and are growing well without any intervention from me to save them (hoping to setup breeder/fry tanks soon, but it's not a priority really). I have also not added any salt to their tank yet since I still have some cories in there and nowhere else to put them just yet.

I'm not questioning your judgement, but just hoping for feedback on what types of problems I might be able to expect with keeping them in soft water so I'll know what to watch out for. Maybe I just haven't had them setup long enough to start developing any problems, so don't want to be caught offguard. I was always under the impression that mollies were fairly easy fish to keep.

Thanks for any input! :)
 
Depending on what kind you have, mollies can be hardy, but most offered commercially are very inbred and tend to die off. Consider this--8 survivors out of a hundred babies? That's a really low rate, even with heavy predation. All the varieties (sailfin, balloon, etc) are created through hybridization (I think--read an article on this a while back) and tend to be weaker.

I guess the best qualification is that mollies can be hardy, but often are not. I think they have the same rep as neons--you see them everywhere, so people assume they must be easy. Not the case. I wouldn't recommend them as a first fish, but that doesn't mean people aren't successful with them.
 
Most mollies are indeed hybrids. Because P. sphenops is a f/w fish, but the sailfin molly, P. latipinna, is slightly brackish, mollies vary in their water requirements.

Pure sailfins are not hybrids. There are two species - latipinna and velifera. The latter is larger and requires more brackish conditions.

If your molly is short finned, even in the male, it is of the sphenops kind. Sailfins must be more or less latipinna.

I'm sure there's a molly expert somewhere going to say I've got it all wrong, but this is my understanding.
 
Mollies will do alright as long as the tank is well maintained. I have soft water and very rarely lose a fish in my livebearer tank. The main reason they are classed as not a beginner fish is because they are more succeptible (sp?) to the common illnesses that are related to beginners tanks.

You will find that they don't exactly need salt added to their water because they are generally bread and raised in pure freshwater tanks, and if salt is added, then it should be done gradually. IMHO Sailfin mollies will definately do alot better with a bit of salt in their tank, this not only helps to reduce the chance of some illnesses, but I have found they tend to have larger fry and recover from the birthing process alot quicker.
 
I have found my mollies very easy to raise, and have had no problems whatsoever

and as far as babies surviving, the first time we had babies, without knowing better we just thought 'well, tomorow we'll go get a tank just for them to grow up in' and the next morning there were 5 left (out of about 80-100)

and no bodies... so they must have been eaten, right? i dont think its cause they die off.
 
I'm certain that at least 99% of my "missing" fry were indeed eaten. I did see a dead one now and then during water changes, but the rest of them simply vanished. I'm working on setting up another tank to give the babies at least a fighting chance to survive.
 
Tim - yes, but if you want to create slightly brackish conditions the salt sold for marine aquaria is better.
 
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