Green hair algae eaters

[meco65]

I have found that the common Molly makes a great algae eater. They are cheep come in a bunch of different colors, and love green hair algae. The only thing is the pair I have just had 15 babies I was able to save 11 as most of them went through the overflow into the sump. But now I have 17 mollies in my tank. I wanted to run this by the RC experts, I am thinking of trying to acclimate the babe mollies back to fresh water to keep my nitrates down. Do you think they will survive.

Babes are in a breeder net, dose not look very good in my main tank. IMO.

[meco65]

:0

[meco65]

=))

[Blown 346]

Yes you can acclimate them FW, you have to dso this slowly. You will have to have another tank setup for them. I owul dreccomend using the water form the tank there in now in the new one for them.

[meco65]

I have a FW 10gal set up, I was going to drip acclimate them slowly over 3or 4 hours in a foam minnow bucket with a small heater. Than take out about half the water and drip for 3 to 4 more hours till the water has no salt.

[capn_hylinur]

Originally posted by meco65
I have a FW 10gal set up, I was going to drip acclimate them slowly over 3or 4 hours in a foam minnow bucket with a small heater. Than take out about half the water and drip for 3 to 4 more hours till the water has no salt.

these are common fresh water mollies. They will adapt as permanent residents to salt water??
How long would you have to drip acclimate them?

[kraze3]

I also have saltwater acclimated mollies. I acclimated them over a 24 hour period or so. it can be done a bit faster but It was getting late so I went to bed and finished in the morning. Theyu are excellent hair algae eaters but like meco65 mine have had babies a few times also. It gets a little annoying cause I feel bad killing the babies but I cant keep them all.

meco65 they can be acclimated back just do it very slowly. They're gonna start breeding in your freshwater prank too though so be ready for more when they get a bit older.

GL =)

[kraze3]

capn_hylinur, to answer your question yes regular fresh water mollies can be acclimated to saltwater. If I remember correctly they were originally saltwater fish that have adapted to fresh water over hundreds of years or whatnot.

[demonsp]

Come on just becaude you can do you want to . This is a reef tank.
Do you have alot of hair alge?
Do you know your readings like nitrate , phosphate ?
Whats the water source?

[jadeguppy]

Mollies can be found naturally in freshwater, brackish, and salt water. I have caught wild ones in the reeds near the local sound. Some lollies can look attractive in sw and they do a great job eatting algea. I am partial to the dalmations, but also have a golden lyre tail in my fw that I recently found. They are very easy to tell the males from females. If you want to keep a few in the sw tank, remove all the females. Once they are impregenated they will stay pregnant up to six months and have batch after batch. Average batches are around 30 fry, but can up double that. They give birth about every 4 weeks. For a change back to fw I would give the fry plenty of time. Fry are more delicate than mature fish. Maybe set up a small sw and do 10% water changes each day, adding back fw. Or just set up a nano sw with a hob filter and each week when you do the regular water change, fill it with fw. No extra work that way.

[demonsp]

Its a FOWLR so what is your stock?

[meco65]

Thanks for all the replys. All the babes made the jump to FW, Got them in a 10gal.

[meco65]

(demonsp) the only fish in the tank is two mollies. My water source is tap water, I know its bad. I had planed to have a RO/DI but things did not work out like planed. I know I have a phosphate problem but for now that’s the best I can do.

[Vinnie71975]

Originally posted by kraze3
capn_hylinur, to answer your question yes regular fresh water mollies can be acclimated to saltwater. If I remember correctly they were originally saltwater fish that have adapted to fresh water over hundreds of years or whatnot.

They are Actually best kept in a Brackish environment but will thrive in Full Salt water or Complete freshwater. But beware they are stupid and will get caught in power heads and die i lost 2 that way.

[jadeguppy]

A small piece of plastic canvas sold in the craft section and a little thread to hold it in place will cover the intake and keep things bigger than an 1/8 inch from getting sucked up.