Advice on keeping mollies please?

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H

hidz.b

Feeder Fish
Jul 11, 2010
3
0
0
London
I'm a complete novice when it comes to keeping fish (and also posting on forums), but a friend of mine keeps dalmatian mollies and as they've kept breeding I agreed to take a couple off her hands. I don't intend to start up a huge tank just for a few mollies, but I was wondering if they'd keep in a simple fish bowl, and if so how large would be recommended for just two?
Also, important question would also be if two males/two females would get along together, as I don't really want to end up with a lot of baby mollies myself but I also don't want any fighting.
Any help would be appreciated, thank you :)
Heidi
 
Mollies of these mixed types typically grow to between 3" and 5", so I wouldn't keep them in anything smaller than a 20g (U.S. Gallons). If they've been raised in pure freshwater for many generations, you won't need any marine salt for them as you might for more wild types or for black mollies.

Good idea to keep same gender! It's best not to put one male with one female, as all his 'interest' will be on her and the stress could kill her. Males also stay smaller, so shoot for two males. They might eventually start...pursuing each other though, so watch for that and be ready to separate.

No, fish bowls aren't really good for much besides killing fish. Some small species can hack life in a bowl, but it's not practical to maintain a complete nitrogen cycle in a bowl for most fish. And certainly not mollies.
 
GhostShrimpMan;4278681; said:
Do you even have a cycled tank ready for them? Anyways they will certainly not live very long in a bowl.
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So far, I have nothing yet. I didn't want to get a huge aquarium just for two fish if it wasn't needed, also there are so many different types of tanks out there it's all a bit mind-boggling. Also they've only just been born so I need to wait to see the genders of the fish before I take any. I don't intend on keeping any more than just the two.
 
That's how we all start. Soon you'll want an otto to control the algae and before you know it you'll have a 125g tank in your living room! It's quite wondrous, really.

For two male dalmation mollies, you could realistically get away with a 15g breeder tank. They aren't terribly fast growers in my experience. Use lots of easy plants and change the water 50% every week and you'll have few problems. Just make sure to read up on cycling before you add fish. If you add two fry to the tank, the ammonia will be consumed by the plants and your filter will mature as the fish grow.
 
knifegill;4278710; said:
That's how we all start. Soon you'll want an otto to control the algae and before you know it you'll have a 125g tank in your living room! It's quite wondrous, really..
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I second that notion.
I started off with a 10, now i have 6 tanks set up in my room :p

No fish bowls, they're horrible and have little comfort.

I'd say put them in a 10 gl, if you don't want anything really big, 10 is fine for now.

But eventually you will want to upgrade ;)
 
Well the smaller the tank the better, in all honesty, as I'm still living with parents upgrading to a massive tank would be frowned upon. I'll probably end up with a huge tank as soon as I move out, but the mollies will have to do for now. Would I be safe in assuming 10 gallons is around 40 litres? Not too familiar with gallons in the UK ;)
 
I'd just do a 10 gl tank

which is yes about 40 liters (actually 37.8 or so)

If it's only gonna be the two mollies, a 10 is fine

but cycle a tank beforehand
 
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