Acclimating full freshwater mollies to saltwater

[mikeward500]

Hi, just wondering I have gotten about 20 mollies very cheap in various sizes, from 1/4inch to fully mature. They were all in full freshwater and I would like to make them full-marine but dont want to kill them. Right now the only thing saltwater is a piece of live rockand a VERY small amount of saltwater that was with the rock. I checked the salinity and does not read anything and the mollies are going great and eating and courting good. I have them currntly in a large rubber maid tub that i belive is around 25-30gallons with just an airstone for now and am going to add an overflow tomorrow.

how long should I take out the acclimating process since they have never had saltwater until now? I know on many sites/forums including this one I seen 7-8 hours will work but when I mentioned it at the store the woman said weeks or months which sounded a bit strange since naturally they swim from one to the other. I was thinking about just a little per week or possibly a bit per day. My purpose is to use the live fry as live food once they are acclimated ans breeding.

any help would be very appreciated.

thanks in advance,
mike

 

[fijiwigi]

I didn't even know that was possible very interesting. I am curious to hear about the results???????????????????????????????

 

[mikeward500]

It is possible with mollies since their natural habitat can be either fresh or saltwater although most mollies in any petstore I have seen are fully freshwater. This is one test I hope to pass LOL, and so far they are all still eating like crazy and the males are chasing the females doing their courting so I assume all is good so far

 

[Devilishturtles]

I've heard that a slow drip acclimation for 6 to 12 hours would work fine, and there are people on here that have done it in 3-4 and some who have done it over a few weeks. I would play it say and say over a day or two's time at the soonest.

 

[roka64]

It is possible but I would either do a looong drip or set up a QT and increase the salinity over a long period of time. Hopefully someone with direct experience will chime in. I hear they are great algae grazers (not sure on the type of algae).

 

[Zagz]

I know that Hara has had success acclimating mollies from fresh to full SW.I'll see if I can find her thread on how she did it. You could pm her and ask her more detailed questions.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f82/baby-sailfin-mollies-95432.html

 

[melosu58]

I believe that it will take days to do. They need to be acclimated very slowly.

Here is a thread

Sailfin Molly (Fresh-to-Salt Journey) - Fantasyreef Forum

 

[beano1]

I work at a pet store, and we tried this with a black molly. It didnt really take as long as we thought. And he did really well. we was in one of our tank for about a month and became kind of a mascot. but we ended up selling it. so now someone else has a unique fish to look at

 

[mikeward500]

I had a last minute decision to make the other day. I was upping the level little by little and then saw since I put about 20 mollies in a rubbermaid the ammonia levels were sky rocketing so I added a large airstone and changed some water to the same salt level but they were still breathing rapidly so since I have gotten rid of the one damsel I thoughtwhy not try puttinga couple in the 25gallon which is quite a bit higher than the other salt level. Anyways I put them in there 2 nights ago and all are doing great, well other than the 2 small ones which the adults made a meal of.

the ones in the rubbermaid are doing good again so hopefully i have the salt level up to full marine level in a couple days so the fish will have less salinity change which I am sure is tough as any change would be

 

[roka64]

It sounds like you are cycling the rubbermaid with the fish. Remember, ammonia and nitrItes are highly toxic to fish (that's why a lot of folks do a more humane fishless cycle).

 

[mikeward500]

yea, I got more mollies than planned, actually more than twice what i thought i was getting but I did not loose any fish over the process, other than a few babies due to the parents making a meal. But the 25 gallon has been going for over 3 years and has had a bunch of different fish moved in and out of it so It is cycled more than enough. I had plans to give away half the mollies since I didnt not need near that amount but no one has wanted any so they have all gone through the acclimation process. The rubbermaid tub is no longer cloudyand the fish are doing good and eating so I would like to feed a couple to my other fish to lighten the load a bit but cant feed them to my cichlids since I assume saltwater fish would be no good for freshwater fishes meal

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

I have a set of ballon mollies i got for free... and heard about this little experiment.. I put them directly into my saltwater tank and they.. honestly loved it lol.. no acclimation whats so ever.. The temperatures are the same.. so it wasnt a total shock to them.

Wow..just found this thread and didnt pay attention to the date.. sorry lol

 

[shadow14725]

I have breed mollies for years in both fresh and saltwater and can safely tell you that acclimating them into saltwater just like you would with fresh water will not harm the fish and is in fact how we saltwatered most of our sw mollies.

 

[HENSON12]

Crazy chaps

I managed easily with 6 mollies over a maximum of 40 minutes...placed them in a bucket and added small amounts of tank water every 5 - 10 minutes. After their intro to the tank within 15 minutes their breathing was at a normal rate and they were accepting flake food like nothing had happend...save your self 48 hours messing about and get them maturing ya tank asap.

 

[th08tu]

I did it with guppies into my reef tank a while back. As long as you acclimate them slowly, mines was over several weeks of 10% water changes with the "new water" being salt water you should be ok.
The guppies did fairly well however some of the older ones did not like it, and I think there life span decreased because of it. However the younger ones, fry included who are super sensitive, lived and are still alive today in my reef tank.
Honestly though, it looked cool at first, but I wouldn't do it, it just looks out of place to have them in there.

I know guppies aren't mollies, but they are very close.