small alien
The fungus is among us.
Does anyone have saltwater acclimated guppies, platys, swords or mollies in your reef? Pictures? I'm thinking of trying a guppy. I'm a bit concerned about the flow.
Freshwater Livebearers in Your Reef?
- Thread starter small alien
- Start date
small alien
The fungus is among us.
I'm going to give it a whirl sometime soon. Thanks for the thoughts.
small alien
The fungus is among us.
I have to admit, it's kinda just because I think it would be kind of hilarious to have a guppy in a reef.
:thumbsup: The FOWLR in our local hospital has a group of mollies. They also sift the sand. There's always babies swimming close to the rockwork as well.
If you start with brackish mollies, you can drip acclimate them to full salt in as little as 12 hours (I have done this successfully.) The mollies will eat algae, but they will stop if you are feeding the tank too much tasty food (at least, mine did.) The people that I know of who transfered guppies over started with fish in freshwater and they took a much longer time to acclimate them to full salt, but they were successful.
drainbamage101
New member
I used to keep mollies in SW a lot- I never acclimated a single one. They got lifted out of FW and dropped into the SW, didn't lose one 
I will say I dislike having them in a reef-they are good for algae control, and I've never had a molly have any problem with flow (long tail guppies could have major issues,) but they are devistating eaters. The micro-fauna in my tank went from bountiful to zilch in a very short period of time, only recovering when I pulled them out eventually.
I will say I dislike having them in a reef-they are good for algae control, and I've never had a molly have any problem with flow (long tail guppies could have major issues,) but they are devistating eaters. The micro-fauna in my tank went from bountiful to zilch in a very short period of time, only recovering when I pulled them out eventually.
small alien
The fungus is among us.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience.
sneakerpimp
New member
I would do this just because some guppies are very attractive. The only thing I would be concerned about would be the quality of life of the guppy or one of the other fish mentioned in salt water.
Saltwater fishes body are made to keep fresh water in and expel salt. This biological mechanism(osmosis) seems to be quite intensive, requiring specialized kidneys in salt water fish.
Brackish fish may be perfectly fine depending on if the brackish water they evolved from had a salinity high enough to allow them to prosper in saltwater. You would also have to take into account the reason they don't venture out of their brackish estuaries into the ocean from time to time. It may not be salinity related and simply has to do with the ocean lacking a suitable niche for these live bearing fish.
Cool thread by the way.
Saltwater fishes body are made to keep fresh water in and expel salt. This biological mechanism(osmosis) seems to be quite intensive, requiring specialized kidneys in salt water fish.
Brackish fish may be perfectly fine depending on if the brackish water they evolved from had a salinity high enough to allow them to prosper in saltwater. You would also have to take into account the reason they don't venture out of their brackish estuaries into the ocean from time to time. It may not be salinity related and simply has to do with the ocean lacking a suitable niche for these live bearing fish.
Cool thread by the way.
drainbamage101
New member
Not sure the info on guppies-but I do know that while mollies are naturally brackish, for much of the year that brackish is actually of a higher salinity than the ocean. I know in the hobby I always thought of fresh+salt= 1/2 strength salt=brackish, but really brackish vary from low/no salinity to quite high salinity.
sneakerpimp
New member
I used to keep mollies in SW a lot- I never acclimated a single one. They got lifted out of FW and dropped into the SW, didn't lose one
I will say I dislike having them in a reef-they are good for algae control, and I've never had a molly have any problem with flow (long tail guppies could have major issues,) but they are devistating eaters. The micro-fauna in my tank went from bountiful to zilch in a very short period of time, only recovering when I pulled them out eventually.
This is also a problem that I foresaw happening. Do you mean they just ate most of your copepods?
I'm currently researching the impact different salt water invertebrates have on beneficial organisms in reef systems. I plan on removing my peppermint shrimp and a pacific cleaner shrimp, due to the amount of beneficial pods, worms, polyps and other invertebrates that they prey on. The hermits may go at some point as well. It seems that many of the standard "Cleanup Crew" that hobbyists and pet shops tell you to purchase, end up removing a more valuable tiny and microscopic cleanup crew.
If a guppy does eat a large amount of pods, it will be removing the food source I reserved for a pair of manderin dragonets I plan on having.
drainbamage101
New member
Same thing I noticed for same reason- I was intending to have mandarins in the tank and they wiped out all the critters from Amphipod size and down. Flatworms, copepods, small brittle stars, all were gone from the tank. Only thing they didn't touch were bristle worms and their like.
sneakerpimp
New member
I think fan tail guppies might do less damage.
small alien
The fungus is among us.
Good luck catching those shrimp, Mr. Pimp. I hope you're fast!
MrTuskfish
Team RC
From FW guppies to years of effort to be able to actually keep a living reef. Now stocking it with guppies; the hobby has, indeed come full circle.
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