Aaarrrggg Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Hehehe! Words to live by... or to get the 14day guarantee by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaarrrggg Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Does anyone know if different types of mollies will shoal together? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 I have one silver mixed in with my goldens. I've seen her with the others and by herself. I don't really know, yet. I'm pretty sure they can all interbreed though. I found a good web site. I think it's high-larious that subsea has us excited about a common FW fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Y'all are going to ruin the saltwater fish industry by buying these cheap fish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Y'all are going to ruin the saltwater fish industry by buying these cheap fish! Heh, they'll be kicked to the curb (or sump/refugium) once I get my anthias. Or sooner if the bicolor blennie stops freaking out and starts after them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 Does anyone know if different types of mollies will shoal together? All the different types of mollies from FW have shoaled. They allow the amphipods to swim by in daylight with no attempt at food/prey. It makes for a large herd of grazers on microalgae. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 George, have yours started picking at algae yet? Mine are just chilling at the top of the aquarium... It may just take them a while to get used to their new environment before they develop an appetite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 Consider that these FW fish are making major adjustment with internal organs. Give them a couple of days, it has been all of 24 hours since there world changed dramatically. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaarrrggg Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Y'all are going to ruin the saltwater fish industry by buying these cheap fish! Bwhaha! I feel so dumb getting this excited about stupid mollies!! Another question... Do you need algae growing for them to munch on? My tank is currently pretty clean. Will they accept mysis etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 yeah I imagine that the level of salinity may have killed off the gut flora that existed in the mollies stomachs in FW. Without them present they are probably unable to effectively digest any food material until a new saline strain of gut flora dominates the stomach of the molly. But these are just thoughts, I really don't know the microbiology of a molly's digestive system.... Stress may also be a factor affecting appetite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 George, have yours started picking at algae yet? Mine are just chilling at the top of the aquarium... It may just take them a while to get used to their new environment before they develop an appetite. Not yet. Like you said, they are chilling at the top. They all look good and are coping with the higher flow really well (hovering). Two look like they're mating right now. Or playing leap-fish. My older dog is very impressed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Ah, right after posting the above, I see two of them pecking at the top of a LR. One of them is going at it pretty good. That rock is about 60% coralline algae, but the rest looks like a fine coating of green microalgae. Maybe they're working their way up to the good stuff. I don't have a lot of hair algae, but I do have patches of what I think is Lobophora and some bubble algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 18, 2012 Author Share Posted April 18, 2012 Y'all are going to ruin the saltwater fish industry by buying these cheap fish! Bwhaha! I feel so dumb getting this excited about stupid mollies!! Another question... Do you need algae growing for them to munch on? My tank is currently pretty clean. Will they accept mysis etc? I doubt they would eat mysis. Flake food always works. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 18, 2012 Author Share Posted April 18, 2012 With respect to getting excited about something simple, it is a good thing to be excited about something. Excited about life is another way to look at it. All to often, we forget the little things as we go about taking care of the job of "daily living". La bonne temps roulee, Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 I doubt they would eat mysis. Flake food always works. Patrick I feed Zoo Med Aquatrol Spirulina 20 Flake (among other stuff), and yesterday I noticed yet another benefit from the mollies. I try to get the food, flakes or pellets, to sink as nothing I have eats from the surface (except one crazy Skunk Cleaner Shrimp that would sometimes swim upside-down on the surface). So food that floated ended up in the overflow and sump as waste. But the mollies are consummate surface feeders. They not only cleaned up the surface before the flakes went into the overflow, but they also knocked some of it down for the other critters to grab and eat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Last Thursday night I noticed one of the mollies having buoyancy issues. When I first saw him, he was wedged between the substrate and a rock edge. When I looked at him, he tried to swim up. He kept sinking, trying to swim up, sinking, repeat. My intuition told me to net him and leave him in the DT in the net, but I foolishly ignored the feeling. Friday morning I couldn't find that 5th molly anywhere. I'm not sure if he got tagged by an anomene (likely since I've got two BTAs [one monstrous], two MCAs and two MMCAs) or something else was wrong. They all looked fine before, and the other four still look good. That same Thursday night I scanned the sump/refugium before going to bed and had two surprises. The first was a half-dozen molly fry in the sump. I removed them to a separate container for overnight observation then put them back in the refugium Friday around noon (had to go to drill so couldn't babysit until late Sunday). Last night I saw at least five still in there. The second surprise was a dang Sexy Shrimp in the skimmer portion of my sump. I had to rip out the whole skimmer to get the bugger. Oh well, I needed to clean that well anyway. So far I've seen these benefits with mollies (so thanks again to subsea as the OP): 1) can find them at just about any store that carries freshwater livestock (including WalMart) 2) dirt cheap (usually have a 1-2 week return policy if they fail to acclimate - which I haven't had that problem) 3) hardy and easy to acclimate to any tank with existing livestock 4) prolific live breeders, so not only replace themselves but increase their population 5) prolific live breeders, so steady source of live food for other inhabitants 6) herbivorous grazers that eat nuisance algae and/or cyanobacteria 7) surface feeders which can remove floating food before it reaches an overflow or intake and will knock some floating food down for others (which normally are not surface feeders) 8) look better under high intensity SW DT lights (especially LEDs) than you see in your typical store FW tank 9) are the opposite of cryptic and may approach humans as potential feeders (some people like this and some don't) 10) you can get a large group (more than 2) of shoaling/grouping fish in a SW aquarium that will never kill each other Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Bad news, a second of my original 5 mollies has died. Yesterday after getting home from work, I only saw 3 mollies. I spent 10-15 minutes looking around and didn't see the 4th (the 5th having disappeared last Thursday night/Friday). I fed the tank, and the 4th one popped up. It looked a little bloated like it may be pregnant, so I figured it was just resting - it seemed to be fine and ate the spirulina flakes I gave it. Then late last night it was blatantly showing the same symptoms as the first one to disappear. It was having difficulty getting positive buoyancy (kept sinking). It would "fin" or swim its way up, sometimes to the surface to gulp air (trying to get buoyancy from air?), but as soon as it stopped actively swimming it would sink. Remembering how frustrated I was that I couldn't find the last one to disappear, I made sure I netted this one. I moved it to the refugium section of my sump. This morning, I didn't see it at all. I was poking through the Chaeto and Ulva thinking, "Wow, those bristle worms are scary good!" Then I found it. It was dead (hopefully not pregnant), but it looked like it hadn't been dead for long. I was hoping it was just an anemone tag or something with the first one, but two with the exact same symptoms and even the same time-of-day but four days apart seems like something else. Can they be weakened by the shift to SW? What causes failure of air bladders (always empty) in fish like these? On a good note, all six of my molly bablies were still growing and swimming around in the refugium last night and this morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 On another note, here's a test for the OP statement, "I like cyano." I've been watching a pink slime patch that I believe is cyanobacteria spreading on a side rock. It's been growing slowly, and so far no signs that the mollies have noticed it much less nibbled at it. (sorry, crappy picture but you can see the patch in the middle) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 I normally lose up to 50% of introduced fresh water mollies after about two weeks. I have third and fourth generation Black Mollies in my seaweed growout tanks. As would be expected, these fish have 99% survival rates. With respect to the cyno mat eating, it was one of the large Black Mollie that was third generation marine strength salt. One thing that I have noticed about the way their mouth opens, it favors eating short biofilms. It looks similiar to how a Pecostomus algae eater works. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Are they straight Black Mollies? At RCA and PetSmart I've seen the dalmation ones but not just black. I need to find some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 gosh my black molly still hasn't picked at my algae. I must have some nasty strain that neither my lawnmower blenny or molly want to eat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 gosh my black molly still hasn't picked at my algae. I must have some nasty strain that neither my lawnmower blenny or molly want to eat. Do you feed your tank a lot? Hungry fish tend to be more prone to eat algae when they are not full from pellets/mysis/etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 I have third and fourth generation Black Mollies in full strength salt water. I would be happy to give you'll each one large female that is pregnant. They are very promiscuious. Patrick 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 I have third and fourth generation Black Mollies in full strength salt water. I would be happy to give you'll each one large female that is pregnant. They are very promiscuious. Patrick That would be great. Maybe the May swap meet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 gosh my black molly still hasn't picked at my algae. I must have some nasty strain that neither my lawnmower blenny or molly want to eat. Do you feed your tank a lot? Hungry fish tend to be more prone to eat algae when they are not full from pellets/mysis/etc. No I've only fed it once Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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