Mollies in a reef

Has anyone seen mollies in a reef tank? I have a 10g and 29g stuffed with mollies and their babies. I am currently slowly converting them and my mangroves over to saltwater. I originally bought the mollies to have feeders for anglers and possibly an eel, and to get a biofilter starter while I build ny reef tank.

A few observations. The mollies destroy algae. I dont know how this will equate in a reef tank with all of the various types of algae that plagues reef tanks, but they keep their current tank clear of algae. They clean the sand, and every surface in the tank. They dont eat their babies. I bought pregnant females and now have a tank completely filled with little guys. No separating, no catching babies as fast as I can before they are eaten, no plastic traps to stress out the females, no nothing. They dont even eat the tiny baby guppies. This leads me to think they wouldnt even eat pods.

I had thought about taking a trio of black mollies, a trio of orange mollies, orange tubastra, black tubastrea, and a white sand bottom in a 29g. Flyers tank.

I am seriously considering allowing a trio of black mollies to roam my 120g reef though. Charming little guys. It will suck when I take the extras and feed them to my turtle.

I did it.





They didn't live long, but I know several factors had to do with their death, including the fact I bought them at Petsmart (which never seems to have a really healthy selection of fish most of the time), I drip-acclimated them (rather than acclimating to brackish for a little while, then slowly upping the salinity), and I put them in my least-healthy tank. I have to admit, it was a science experiment to me and I just wanted to see if they would acclimate. They lived for about a week. I would do it again, especially since I noticed they nipped at the HA growing on the wall of the tank they were in. I say you've got a good idea putting a few in your 120

Ive heard of many people do this just for algae control. Dont know how they do long term but they dont seem to mind the switch to salt of dont right.

One of the local fish store here had black mollies they had ordered in. They had them for several weeks, seen couple die but alot were sold and seen couple of them had babies while at the store.

I have 5 million babies. I am gonna acclimate them to salt over the course of a few weeks. Along with the mangroves. 2 birds 1 stone.

I've only seen one reef that had mollies in it and they grew huge!

People put mollies in swimming pools too!

Poor mollie

Originally Posted by Variko

I have 5 million babies. I am gonna acclimate them to salt over the course of a few weeks. Along with the mangroves. 2 birds 1 stone.

you should send me a few to try too



I bet they are going to do great with your mangroves!

Lol petsmart sells them for 2 bucks. That would be cheaper than the shipping. Buy a pregnant female.

I would think they would do fine at the lower end of saltwater 1.021-1.023 . When I've seen them in the wild, they were always in brackish water, never in the full strength stuff. Granted they were just aquarium escapees and might of been eaten by reef predators, but even in the protected lagoons, they didn't turn up in full seawater. So I don't know for sure, but I'm led to believe they prefer brackish to seawater.

I acclimated many of my dalmation mollies and several other species of mollies. Some took well to it others did not. The dalmations seemed to be the best at it. They lived the longest. Yes they are real good at eating algea. Once they are in the salt water for a week or so their colors looks so much more vivid to. Another good thing is they are easy to get out when you dont want them there anymore.