Black Molly - Fresh or Saltwater fish??

[Rijinals]

Have you guys heard or tried this?

Apparently if you get a black molly (your typical freshwater fish) in a beaker of fresh water - hold the same amount of mature saltwater in a similar beaker above him - then pierce the bottom of both beakers so they drip at the same time. The freshwater drips away and saltwater into the mollies beaker.

By the time all the freshwater has dripped away and the saltwater has replaced it (around the molly). His gills would have adapted to saltwater and then WAMO! you can keep him in your saltwater tank and he will grow 4 times the size of his freshwater mates!

Strange but true!!! BUT it only works with the black molly, not the whites, golds, reds etc etc

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

WHOA!! Slow down there buddy! This is full of loop holes. Yes, mollies can be acclimated to full strength sea water. A little background information is that Mollies are actually brackish water fish found off the Gulf of Mexico. They are found naturally all the way into the shoreline of the ocean all the way up into the estuaries.

Now, the beaker thing is also a little skewed. For starters, you can't puncture the bottom of a beaker Secondly, if you mix 1 part of Freshwater to one part Saltwater, you are only going to get half the strength of saltwater. Basically brakish, a molly's natural environment. For example. One part of 1.000 water mixed with one part of 1.025 will only yield 1.0125. That's obviously not full strength. While a drip method is prefered, it takes far more water and time than that.

Now a HUGE myth here is that he will grow larger. This, too, is untrue. Regardless of the environment, the fish will obtain a maximum size given the age. There is no way that a Molly will grow to 12" compared to his 3" freshwater brethren.

And one last myth to bust. Color is not an indicating factor. Just because something is a different color doesn't mean that it is a different species. I have acclimated all colors of mollies to saltwater. Black, White, Peppered, Orange, Albino, etc. Sailfin Mollies are actually well adapted. Now, I personally believe that their intelligence is extremely diminished compared to their wild brethren. Many years of inbreeding and crossbreeding in captive environments have left them utterly stupid. They tend to swim directly towards things that prey on them. For example, I've had a whole clutch of new fry of roughly 50 individuals be devoured by Pseudocorynactis species (Orange Ball Anemones) in a matter of hours because they thought that the balls were food. In short, the tolerance of a molly is based on the species, not the color.

And for what it's worth, I've been keeping saltwater mollies for over a year now as well as keeping them in freshwater for many years prior.

 

[Rijinals]

Those polystyreine beakers dude!!! You can pin ***** the bottom of them!

So is it true that this can happen?? And you have done it??

Mollys are cheap and breed like rabbits, if the other tankmates like a bit of live molly food, this may be something to think about!!

 

[Rijinals]

Oooooops, sorry did not realise you can not say that word! I did not mean it in the bad way!!

Ok, you can pin hole the bottom!

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

I have no idea what word was said. If it helps any, you can't say the genus name for human beings

It's true. I have done it.

There is a White Male Sailfin Molly in the top left corner, and a White Sailfin Female in the middle right below the oulet of the powerhead in my 29g tank.

Female White Sailfin Molly in Top Center and Peppered Black Silfin Molly Female in Top Left

 

[Rijinals]

Wow, cheers for those pics dude, I am shocked I well thought it was a myth!!!

I said something thats starts with a P and rhymes with Rick - hence a pin *****!

 

[Rijinals]

Oh - hang on. Travis L. Stevens did you buy the mollies as fresh or salwater fish??
If fresh did you do the beaker drippy thing?

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

:lmao: AH! Interesting like getting pricked in the finger by an urchin?

FWIW, in a tank transfer I lost these mollies (great food for my cleanup crew), but instead I have a very large male and female black Sailfin Mollies now. The male is easily pushing 4 inches, the female is slightly smaller at a solid 3 inches. I'll get pictures later. They are bigger than my chromis, clownfish, and even the yellow tang that is using my tank as a temporary home.

 

[MCary]

Many fish can live in both salt water and fresh water. Besides mollies there's salmon, striped bass, red fish, lamprey, and many others. Its freshwater fish that cannot live in SW. They do not have the mechanism to deal with the salinity which I believe has something to do with urea. What you have described is an acclimation process. Drip method. I have taken mollies from this tank: (which is soft acidic fresh water)

and thrown them in my reef with no acclimation and they survived. I have seen wild mollies in the San Antonio river and ditches around the San Antonio Zoo. I have read that they have been discovered miles out to sea.

Mollies need relatively warm water 80-82 degrees and vegatable matter in there diet and they can live in about anything.

Mike

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7812142#post7812142 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rijinals
Oh - hang on. Travis L. Stevens did you buy the mollies as fresh or salwater fish??
If fresh did you do the beaker drippy thing?

I didn't have access to wild mollies in brackish water (which I would have prefered), so I had to buy the freshwater culls from breeders. You know, the ones you see at all the pet stores. I'll take them, put the bag water and them in a 5g bucket, and then use an airline hose to drip water from the tank into the bucket. I usually fill the bucket so there is roughly 4+ gallons of water per the amount of bag water which is usually far less than 1/2 a gallon. I then will scoop them ina new bag with water from the bucket and acclimate them for about 15 minutes in the tank to get the temperature right, and then let them swim out of the bag on their own (I don't dump, less stress). FWIW, and I don't recommend, an emergency situation called for me to risk life and death with acclimating a molly to a higher specific gravity. Five minutes later, it was in the tank straight from fresh water. I do NOT recommend doing this, though. It's far too risky and stressful. But it beat being dried up on the floor since I had no buckets to acclimate in.

 

[Rijinals]

Thats it!!! pricked by and urchin! Ha Ha!! You need to Urchin the bottom of the beaker!

A 4" molly! Wow! I wonder if you can do this with any other freshwater fish, keeps us lot off the streets nad if they get gulped, its a good healthy nutricous dinner for the salt gang!!

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Perfectly put, MCary. And nice planted tank

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7812203#post7812203 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rijinals
Thats it!!! pricked by and urchin! Ha Ha!! You need to Urchin the bottom of the beaker!

A 4" molly! Wow! I wonder if you can do this with any other freshwater fish, keeps us lot off the streets nad if they get gulped, its a good healthy nutricous dinner for the salt gang!!

Well, ***** is a derogatory noun, while pricked is an action verb. Hence why it wasn't sensored

I have personally never seen mollies this big, and they quickly became some of my personal favorites. I got them both for just slightly under $5, too. Actually, the female gave birth the night they were acclimated. I found only one baby. It got eaten later.

As MCary said, there is only a few things that can readily go between various degrees of Specific Gravity. There is a lot of science involved. Heck, people have been able to acclimate Figure Eight Puffers to full strength saltwater. Or was that Green Spotted Puffers? Either way, I wouldn't recommend it much because they aren't naturally found this way.

 

[Rijinals]

Well blow me down! Thanks for the info guys, you learn something everday, I will be able to get a good night sleep now!!

 

[Rijinals]

Hey MCary, you will have to watch putting those "planted tank pics" up in here! You might offend some folk! Ha Ha!

It is a nicely planted tank though, good job!

 

[Fishy Business]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7812267#post7812267 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rijinals
Hey MCary, you will have to watch putting those "planted tank pics" up in here! You might offend some folk! Ha Ha!

It is a nicely planted tank though, good job!

I am really offended. Remove that pic of the planted tank now. :uzi:

 

[Rijinals]

Shoot me squire not the messanger! I started it all, its all my fault!

 

[MCary]

I do reef, I promise. Planted tank is a secret Shhhhhh.

See:

I also raise discus.

How embarassing!

Mike

 

[AquaReeferMan]

Sorry to be off topic and to bring this up but I think that purple tang has outgrown that 29g.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7813399#post7813399 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AquaReeferMan
Sorry to be off topic and to bring this up but I think that purple tang has outgrown that 29g.

:lol: No worries. It was in my tank for 24 hours. I picked one up for a friend in Tulsa, it stayed overnight in my tank in Stillwater, and the next day went to Oklahoma City into a 600 Gallon tank. I just took a picture for a joke thread. But the picture seems to serve a purpose of showing the mollies in there.

FWIW, My 29g tank is constantly being used as short term temporary homes.