Mollies with no salt?

Watcher74

Watcher74

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Feb 5, 2004
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I currently have a freshwater community tank with no salt added. I saw some dalmation dollies as the LFS an would really like to add one to my tank. However, apparently they are brackish condition fish. On the other hand I have read that Mollies raised in captivity are fine in tanks with no salt added.

Does anyone have any experience with mollies in community tanks with non brackish water?

Watcher
 
i like them with garlic too, just kidding, we have put guppies in with our giant naso tang to see if it would eat it, and the damned guppy lived a long time! like a few weeks!
 
Hans, have you been drinking?

Naso Tang? Guppies?

Uh, I was asking about Mollies.
 
I've raised em both ways. They will live okay without salt but I've noticed that they tend to get ick easier than if they have salt. I don't currently have any mollies but been thinking of starting a new tank and would like to get some. I would defenitly add salt and never try it without salt again. I just had too many problems without it.
 
IME all the mollies that I've kept REALLY didn't like being out of brackish water and showed obvious signs of stress when in a completely FW environment. Even in a planted tank with perfect water quality they were stressed, never comming out to see me when I'd approach the tank or fed them.
Since moving them to my 135g brackish (SG of 1.018) they've become very friendly, comming to the top of the tank to see me when I feed them, shoot up to the glass when I approach the tank and generally act more friendly towards each other in particular.
 
Aquarium Myth?

I believe I have seen before that it doesn't really matter on the type of salt.

I've kept mollies since the 70's both in salted and fresh water with good results either way. My water is fairly hard so this may make a difference. This is /not/ the large sailfin types but the common marble or dalmation types.
 
I've raised mollies in completely freshwater with no problems at all. I have noticed though that the Blacks are very susceptible to fungal infections, and I think that the salt would help them greatly, but the other varietys do just fine without salt. I'm raising a couple gold dust fry right now in totally freshwater and they are growing like crazy.
 
I believe more mollies are kept in freshwater than in brackish. I'm not sure with mollies but many many fish move from brackish to freshwater and even into saltwater in the wild and live just fine. Those types of fish can usually move into any of the 3 and live just fine. I have seen Mollies kept in saltwater and freshwater and live just as long as any that are kept in brackish water. Kyle
 
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