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Converting Mollies from Freshwater to Saltwater


venustus

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Hello everyone, it's been a while since I've visited. I'm looking for comments and/or opinions on converting Mollies from freshwater to saltwater. I've read about it, and actually seen it done at a few LFS. Has anyone had any experience with it? If so, what were the results? I've read that occassionally this happens in nature (creeks or streams flood with saltwater and they adapt). But no where have I read or heard any "long term" results. In nature, I would think the habitat would eventually revert back to freshwater as rainwater accumulatesand flushes the saltwater out.

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I've heard of it being done before, however don't understand why you'd want to. Tropical marine has much more interesting and beautiful fish available than the molly, which can be kept in freshwater anyway (which is cheaper and easier to maintain).

Naturally I beleive the molly lives in fresh and brackish waters, so you'd just need to slowly raise the salinity over time, and if at any stage the fish showed signs of discomfort, then slowly lower the sainity again. Most important is that you don't suddenly change the salinity.

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I have got two molly fry in my tropical marine tank now and they are doing fine. Heres how I done it

I got a jar which I hung inside the tank with 1/4 water from salt tank and rest from freshwater tank which I done first thing in the morning. About 30+mins before lights out I removed 1/4 water and added more salt water. I then left it for a day to monitor and kept a close eye. Following day I then removed half of the water and toped up with salt water. Next day I just tiped it into the salt tank and away it went.

I have seen them eating off the rocks as well as the little white crawly critters on the glass. They always seem fat and happy and get fed 2-3 drops of frozen daphnia or a small scraping of microworms which they get every 2-3 days as there is a lot of other things that they seem to be nibbling on. I have two mushroom corals in there and they are not bothereing them so all is good for me so far :D

:bounce:

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I've heard of it being done before, however don't understand why you'd want to.

For me it is a matter of "tank real estate" :lol: I currently have 6 tanks going (4 fresh & 2 salt), Hubby stated "If you set up one more tank, I filing for divorce!" (since that was 2 tanks ago, I'd better not push my luck!) :o My daughter's friend's mother is tired of taking care of them and ready to "dispose" of them. The only available space I have right now is a 12 gal nano with live rock and a few soft corals (which I don't have room for in my other salt tank, otherwise I would make it a fresh nano). At this point I think converting to salt is better than the alternative! :wink:

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Just think.

If you got a divorce, then you could downsize to a single bed.

Walla

More room for tanks.

I have seen it done and also done it myself, just put them straight into the new environment. Both ways too.

Just make sure that the temperature is the same.

They hate chilling.

Alan 104

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Actually, while waiting for replies, I went looking around and found an interesting site:

http://www.saltcorner.com/sections/zoo/mollies.htm

The article states:

The sailfin varieties tend to get larger than most others, - three to six inches long (7.5 - 15 cm), but are quite gentle with other fish. The Yucatan mollies tend to remain small, about two inches (5 cm).

By

Sheila and Jeremy Sellinger

I'd sure love to see a 6 inch Molly! :P

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One of the Guys in the Fish club I belong to says all he did was put em into the salt tank .. Temps should be the same though as I find Mollies do NOT like temp changes or at least quick changes.. Ick and such pretty much everytime I have seen a rapid temp change with Mollies.

The Sailfins do get larger then the Normal Varieties as you quoted and are that much more to look at. I have a preference for both the Dalmation and Green Neon Sailfins myself, They dwarf my 24k Mollies by a good bit.

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