Black Mollies

[twestacott]

My son and I have taken a great interest in fish keeping and are looking to start or own little home aquarium. My son is only 7 and has an animal hair allergy preventing him from having furry pets. Until last year we lived at my inlaws and my son was amazed by my father in laws little fish tank. He would love helping feed the fish so we figured this would be a great pet for him.

I have been doing some research as I am quite interested as well and am trying to fully understand the cycling process and water levels, etc.

Anyways we have done a lot of looking around to see what kind of fish we would like. My son originally wanted bala sharks but I dont think we have enough room for a tank that size as I understand they need about 70 gallons. When we went to look at the store we both really loved black mollies. He loved that they would follow his finger on the edge of the glass and I love the look of them.

I just had a few questions. We are looking at getting a tank around 30 gallon and hope to get about 6 mollies and eventually go up to about 12-14 fish. Are mollies an ok fish to start with if we cycle the tank for a month? Also I have read that they need some salt making them incompatible with many other fish. Is this true and if so could anyone suggest other fish that might work well in the same tank.

Any help that can be offered would be greatly appreciated as we are really very new and I dont trust the sales people at the stores to give me good advice if it means missing a sale.

 

[Gboy66]

My son and I have taken a great interest in fish keeping and are looking to start or own little home aquarium. My son is only 7 and has an animal hair allergy preventing him from having furry pets. Until last year we lived at my inlaws and my son was amazed by my father in laws little fish tank. He would love helping feed the fish so we figured this would be a great pet for him.

I have been doing some research as I am quite interested as well and am trying to fully understand the cycling process and water levels, etc.

Anyways we have done a lot of looking around to see what kind of fish we would like. My son originally wanted bala sharks but I dont think we have enough room for a tank that size as I understand they need about 70 gallons. When we went to look at the store we both really loved black mollies. He loved that they would follow his finger on the edge of the glass and I love the look of them.

I just had a few questions. We are looking at getting a tank around 30 gallon and hope to get about 6 mollies and eventually go up to about 12-14 fish. Are mollies an ok fish to start with if we cycle the tank for a month? Also I have read that they need some salt making them incompatible with many other fish. Is this true and if so could anyone suggest other fish that might work well in the same tank.

Any help that can be offered would be greatly appreciated as we are really very new and I dont trust the sales people at the stores to give me good advice if it means missing a sale.

Very well done so far! I am impressed by your research as a first timer!

Lets see here. Mollies are a great fish, active and personable! Their only downside in my opinion is their bio-load. They poop quite a bit, making it unlikely that you could stock very many. Another thing is that they breed lile crazy. This could be a problem if you dont want to set up a fry tank, but you could let them have their babys in the tank and let all the others eat them. Your choice!

Mollies are actually able to be in brackish tanks. But they can be in freshwater too. They enjoy some salt, but i dont think it is necessary for their survival.

As for your cycling, adding the fish before it is done is a fish-in cycle. This is a great, often used method because you get some fish sooner! However, i and most others will suggest fish-less. For fishless you just add pure ammonia to the tank dosing it up to 4ppm whenever it drops. When it can maintain that 4ppm and drop it to 0 in a short period of time, and your nitrites stay at 0 with your nitrates less than 10, your done. This is apposed to fish in, where you need to do many water changes to keep the levels safe for the fish. So far, a stock list that i would suggest for you and your son would be
2-3 black mollies
8 tetras (neons, glowlights, penguin, and about a nillion other types!)
1 dwarf gourami
And a bottom feeder like corycats. 5 would be good.

As you see, you could get up to 16-17 fish without being over stocked!

About the sales people, agreed. Some are actually very helpful an knowledgable, but others are lile you said, going for the sale.

Welcome to AA by the way! Hope this helps twestacott!!!

 

[twestacott]

Some great suggestions. Thank you. We are not big on the catfish (although we did seea picture of an albino corycat that looked cool) but there are a few tetra that we have seen that look like cool options like cardinals, black phantoms and bloodfins. The gouramis are kind fo cool too

 

[Gboy66]

Some great suggestions. Thank you. We are not big on the catfish (although we did seea picture of an albino corycat that looked cool) but there are a few tetra that we have seen that look like cool options like cardinals, black phantoms and bloodfins. The gouramis are kind fo cool too

I am not a fan of corys either but they are great fish. I can see you like the oddball fish, google kuhli loaches! You could get quite a few

 

[derail]

Molly fish are an awesome starter fish, but as previously mentioned, they can be wasteful. 12-14 is a bit much, but if you're willing to do the water changes, all is well. Molly's do need salt in there water, as they are naturally brackish water fish. the amount of salt it requires isn't all that much maybe 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons of water and they'll be perfectly happy, and you will be able to stock other fish like guppies and platy's, both of which are also live-bearers.
another thing about molly's which also holds true for other live-bearers is you will want to have a ratio of 1 male to 2/3 females to keep the females from being bothered too much. You could also go all male/female too.
I'll add, if you're unaware of the difference between male/female Molly's, it's super easy to tell. Male's tend to be a little taller vertically and triangular in shape. Females are longer and rounder than males. It gets even easier, however! Male's have a tube-like extension just behind the pelvic fins called a gonopodium, whereas females have an actual anal fin behind the pelvic fins. If the fin at the bottom of the fish nearest the tail fin spreads out like a fan, it's female. If its like a tube, male.

 

[HeatherW]

I have a 20 gallon tank that I just set up. got me a black molly, a mickey mouse platy and 7 cherry barbs. this makes for a very fun tank. when I got the molly I tried to pick one that I thought might be pregnant. she was and now I have molly fry all over! it is so much fun to watch! I went with the "survival of the fittest" method with the fry. a little stressful the first day, but then things calmed down. I have at least 17 little babies in my tank. I will have to give (or sell) some away as not all will fit in my tank.
have fun! sounds like you will enjoy your tank!

 

[ocminpin]

I have a 20 gallon tank that I just set up. got me a black molly, a mickey mouse platy and 7 cherry barbs. this makes for a very fun tank. when I got the molly I tried to pick one that I thought might be pregnant. she was and now I have molly fry all over! it is so much fun to watch! I went with the "survival of the fittest" method with the fry. a little stressful the first day, but then things calmed down. I have at least 17 little babies in my tank. I will have to give (or sell) some away as not all will fit in my tank.
have fun! sounds like you will enjoy your tank!

I've never had barbs, but I hear they can get nippy with peaceful community fish like mollies and platies...

 

[HeatherW]

I've never had barbs, but I hear they can get nippy with peaceful community fish like mollies and platies...

they seem to be fine. I have 7 so maybe that helps a bit. they sometimes zip around and chase each other (male chasing a female I think) but they are quite fun! they never bother anyone else.

 

[ocminpin]

they seem to be fine. I have 7 so maybe that helps a bit. they sometimes zip around and chase each other (male chasing a female I think) but they are quite fun! they never bother anyone else.

That's good I've acclimated my betta into my 29g... She caused a little trouble at first but has mellowed out after my mollies FINALLY put her in her place... Ha