OK, just to make sure they everyone understands each other, I will post this reply.
Scientific Facts of which there can be no argument:
1) Mollies are freshwater fish that are found primarily in freshwater.
2) Mollies are found in hard, very alkaline water in nature.
3) While Mollies don't require salty conditions, they are quite capable of adapting easily to brackish or saltwater conditions as the need arises.
4) Mollies can be found in brackish water and marine water environments with stable, growing breeding populations.
You may have misunderstood what I was saying, but I never made any claims that are counter to any of the above statements.
What I was saying and what seems to have people divided here are...
The things that people seem to disagree about:
1) Mollies can not only adapt to brackish and marine environments, but they can thrive in them as well.
2) Since mollies come from hard, alkaline waters in nature, this makes it much easier for them to adapt to the very alkaline environments that exist in marine environments. The osmotic pressures they experience from both environments are very similar.
You're just splitting hairs on the metaphoric points above and I won't debate the issues on that basis.
jenatronQT3, I'm pretty good at searching for information on the net, but I still haven't found the actual research for you yet. That's hardly surprising though. Most of the time that information is in the scientific journals and they are not always easily available on the net. I'm still looking though and I'm confident that I'll find it sooner or later.
Until then here is a site that is a pretty good source of information for you. Follow
this link for more information.
Edit: I take that back jenatronQT3, I have found something now. As is typical with scientific papers, the full paper is not available unless you are affiliated with the library or study. But the first page is available with an abstract of the conclusions of the full paper's contents. Follow this
link to read it. It is about sailfin mollies, but should apply to both species as they are identical in most respects.