use fresh water mollies to eat algea out of your reef

[northbay-reefer]

check out this thread, its very interesting, I think am gonna give it a try

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=965490

[sulcata1619]

I bought three Yesterday and put them in last night. I did a three hour drip. One of them started eating the hair algae immediately. It is very weird putting starter fresh water fish on your reef. Since it's fresh water fish, you don't get the 20% discount either. I'll have to talk to Lynn about that. HAHA.
If the mollies get used to the other tank mates, I believe they will head down into the tank further and do a great job eating hair algae.

[coralfarmer]

I'm thinking on trying some bubble eye goldfish...?

[sulcata1619]

This is all too crazy

[northbay-reefer]

Sulcata ... yeah its pretty weird :D but once my tank is up and running am going to try some black ones .... now am wondering if they will change their colors when acclimated

Coral farmer, I heard that the buble eye gold fish love to feast on buble algea :D

[sulcata1619]

They shouldn't change color but when they spawn you might not get all black babies. Cool thing is, when they spawn the babies stand a good chance of surviving in big tanks like ours with lots of hiding places. I'll see you saturday. I will be a little later than Jeff. But I will definitely be there on time for the transfer of tanks.

[northbay-reefer]

The only thing that scares me about this move is putting the new tank on top of the cabinet cuz its so freaking heavy, plus I hope the vendor already test this thing for leaks :D :D

Once you come over we will make the tank exchange.

[northbay-reefer]

here is a thread on fresh water glass shrimps used to clean hair algea

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=975254

[Sk8r]

My experience with a molly is that it feeds fairly near the surface and prefers to clean glass rather than attack the caulerpa I'd hoped it would go after. Sigh. I lost one of the two, and if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say females are chancier because almost all females are preggers most of the time, and that state is probably not a plus in acclimation. But so far so good with the male, who is at least doing something constructive.
I'm wondering if the green mollies might be better than the black: the greens are probably closer to the wild state.

It's my understanding that these fish actually transit from rivers to estuary to go after algae. Goldfish would not be a good bet.

[coralfarmer]

Maybe a wild collected pair of Green or black sailfin mollies(Poecilia velifera) from the Yucatan area.

What i think of the glass shrimp idea is that they make great snacks in your tank everyone from clowns to tangs regonize them as food. Yum.

[sulcata1619]

My two white female mollies lasted five days then disappeared. The Male was black and disappeared after three days. One female did have babies though. They are still alive and made down to the fuge somehow. I agree with sk8tr. Mollies are more of a surface feeder. Too bad the hair algae doesn't grow on the surface. LOL.