Mollies in Salt Water or Fresh?

[FishLuvr4]

I have had conflicting opinions on whether Mollies should be in Salt Water or Fresh.

Anybody out there know what is best for them?

 

[knifegill]

Which molly? The black molly should always be in brackish and the others can handle swings between fresh and brackish just fine. I've never tried them in marine, personally, but hear they do fine. I don't know if that means barely surviving or happily dropping fry.

 

[HrHagel]

Most mollies will actually tolerate marine just fine, aslong as they are introduced slowly, as in you add more and more salt to a freshwater tank, before putting them in the marine setup

 

[dookie]

somewhere in the middle is best. males can't tolerate as much salt as females for some reason.

 

[Morledzep]

i never would have thought to put mollies in saltwater.. i've kept salt in their freshwater tanks, but just to make sure we kept the ich at bay (we had a breakout that spread to a couple of the tanks way back when). it's always been my understanding that they are freshwater fish.

 

[FishLuvr4]

Which molly? The black molly should always be in brackish and the others can handle swings between fresh and brackish just fine. I've never tried them in marine, personally, but hear they do fine. I don't know if that means barely surviving or happily dropping fry.

I actually have 2 black, 2 dals, 2 silver Lyretail. I asked for one of each sex from each kind. The dal & black are pregnant, and pretty close to giving birth. I have temporarily placed them in the breeding net.

 

[Kaliedoscope]

Brackish. They aren't often found in full salt but I read in an Innes' book that they get weaker and weaker by the generation if they're having babies in totally fresh water, till they finally stop reproducing after the 2nd or 3rd generation

 

[thebestincali2000]

ive seen them sold as saltwater feeders, but at 5 bucks a pop, thats an expensive feeder, lol, most expensive molly ive ever seen too

 

[FLESHY]

Mollies can survive in SW. In fact, some people keep them in SW.

 

[yogurt_21]

been breeding and keeping mollies for 8 years, standard and lyretails do best in brackish, blacks (a hybrid of sorts) can go either brackish or full marine. Sailfins only reach their full length and color in full marine. I've never seen a saiflin larger than 4" in freshwater, however in a properly balanced marine tank I've seen sailfins reach 5.5"


all that said a molly will be perfectly happy in freshwater for life, but if you're lookign to maximize growth and color, then you need to go brackish for most molly's and full marine for the sailfins.

edit:

Brackish. They aren't often found in full salt but I read in an Innes' book that they get weaker and weaker by the generation if they're having babies in totally fresh water, till they finally stop reproducing after the 2nd or 3rd generation

I have never witnessed this in my 8 years of keeping them. shoot I've lost count of the generation I'm on. lol