mollies in fresh or brackish?

[doogle]

what is better ...keeping mollies in freshwater or brackish water? what is your opinions and experiences?

 

[doogle]

here are some mollies thriving in low salinity

 

[doogle]

these fish need exceptional water quality to keep them healthy in freshwater with high ph and hardness...low salinity(1.004) is salty enough to fight off many paresites and bacterial/fungal infections that plague mollies in aquaria setups.

 

[Shadowraven]

Moved from elsewhere:

If they thrived in such conditions, then they wouldn't be so sparsely found in them.

Do you know for a fact that is true or are you assuming it is? I also don't see any sheep wandering the streets. Does that mean they wouldn't do well there or are there other factors involved?

My point is there are a myriad of reasons to account for their sparse population of brackish waters. Predation not being the least of them. The point I was trying to make was that they have evolved to exist there, so should be able to without problems. Mollies inhabit fresh water streams, coastal brackish and marine waters in Mexico. You can check their fishbase page out here and confirm what I'm saying.

I never saw any signs of distress in my fish. They always had good color and were healthy. They lived for about 4 years, which is the average for them.

 

[doogle]

i am giving my aquarium experiences only, in my opinion brackish water is wonderful for mollies in aquarium setups. salinity can go up and down with every water change, that is the beauty of it, you can lower the salinity and raise the salinity, just like them cruising in/out of streams into open waters, does anyone know where they mostly breed in the wild? i have seen exponentally more breeding in my brackish setups... hardening water is another debate rather than going brackish...

 

[CaptainMako]

I have six dalmation mollies right now. From experience, having some low salinity definately improves health and is a big help with curing and healing if you have any problems.

 

[Shadowraven]

I agree with you doogle, but the folks who didn't aren't responding in this thread.

 

[melosu58]

Ok folks. No baiting. People will post if they want to. I just hope this thread does not get out of hand like the other one did or it will be closed. Keep it civil.

 

[Shadowraven]

I always do. Sorry if you took it to be anything else. I never attack a person, I only the debate the points of fact involved. Whenever you feel that you need to make a personal attack you have already lost the argument.

 

[jenatron]

I'm interested as well. I'm wondering if anyone has any legitimate resources for this though, rather than experience?

 

[Shadowraven]

I'm interested as well. I'm wondering if anyone has any legitimate resources for this though, rather than experience?

Check their fishbase page out here to confirm this. You can't get much more legitimate than that. It will tell you what environments that they naturally occur in. Check out their aquarium maintenance links for more information.

 

[Emclenaghan]

Copied from wikipedia. "Many species of fish traded as freshwater species are actually true brackish species, for example mollies, Florida flagfish, and some cichlids such as chromides and black-chin tilapia."

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[jenatron]

It says brackish and freshwater. The only working link in aquarium maintenance is aquariumwiki, which I don't trust (that applies to wikipedia itself as well). So..

 

[Cobaltskyy]

I had mollies before with and without salt added.

 

[Shadowraven]

It says brackish and freshwater. The only working link in aquarium maintenance is aquariumwiki, which I don't trust (that applies to wikipedia itself as well). So..

I agree, but fishbase is THE definitive source. It is used as a research reference. So from that you can see that they can exist in both environments naturally. If I can find a source that is reliable and provides more information for you, I will provide that link here.

 

[doogle]

well, i didnt get much from that link, i like what you said tho!!!..anyway...COBALTSKYY... what is your opinion on the matter? freshwater with hard water or going brackish? i think mollies have issues in aquaria because they thrive in both(salty and fresh) but aquaria is different and people generally either harden or salt the tank because of OBVIOUS issues they have in aquaria, if you have them you already know... what are your experiences?

 

[Cobaltskyy]

Well when I ran out of salt they kept breeding! Only reason I don't have them anymore is because one of the male babies turned out to be a horny bully...he killed off all 3 females the other two males....then when he was the only one left I think he tried picking on the tetras and eventually got beat up!! I decided to pass on getting more mollies after that fiasco...Lol i think the key was clean, stable water as opposed to fresh vs. Brackish. That's just my opinion tho I really don't pay much attention to water hardness...I probly should tho...lol

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[Cobaltskyy]

My readings are listed under my member introduction thread on 3/28/11

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[doogle]

sayin' you were using marine salt, right? i used aquarium salt for a long time before switching to marine salt. i know mine have become extreme breeding machines since i acclimatized them to low/mid salinity...i also keep pond/nuisance snails farming in the same tank for my green spotted puffer. a couple males are breeding/ agressive but not lethal by any means. the females can get away its a lightly planted tank with driftwood and bamboo, with aquaclear filter with pre-filter. Anyway pond snails and PLANTS can grow in brackish water as well... HARDNESS IS HIGH BUT PH IS 7.6 ISH SO I KEEP THE SALINITY UP

 

[doogle]

GOOGLE , liveaquaria.com , tropical fish magazine... all say hard water and/or higher salinity is best for aquaria setups because of the plagues that ravish these fish in captive setups(salt is better for paresites and other illness), check into it ....(if you have them, 4sure) im trying to help