Mollies in a sw tank

Jerry W

Active member
I recall reading a thread about this at some point, perhaps on another board but is anyone keeping mollies in their sw tank for algae control? One of our lfs has a few tanks running and each holds a pair/few of mollies. These tanks are spotless! Not a speck of algae and all these fish do is scour every surface of the tank. The other fish don't bother them. The mollies don't pester anything else. I recall reading that mollies are actually acclimated to FW for the trade but are more of a sw/brackish fish. Not sure of the truth to this but in any event, I'd consider a pair of these for algae control. Just wondering i anyone else is doing it. pros/cons?
 
I did it on my first ever tank its the Halequin Mollies.They worked well until my Domino Damsel got big enough to eat them.

I drip acclimated them for 2 hours until they were in 1.025 SW.
 
Yeah, the one tank has a mix of Harlequin and white. The other has a gorgeous pair of orange sailfins that are about three inches each and very colorful. I'm pretty much a purist but would consider this for my system, given that they just plow through all kinds of algae.
 
they did work very well while they lasted.I put 2 in my first ever 10g reef that was COVERED in HA,& they plowed down about 1/3 of it before they became lunch.
 
I have a pair that I have live in my sump... not only do I pull them out when I need an algae trim.. but I use their babies as food.
 
I cycled my first tank with them and they did great. Careful they can breed quicker than rabbits with fry having great survival rate. The fry can be a real pain to catch.
 
i kept 1 male and 4 females in my seahorse tank... the algea conrol was fair but the seahorses and mandrin had fry for lunch often

i keep some in my sumps and display tanks they keep the food waste down considerably and my sumps are algea free
 
thats what I do is use them in my sump and catch the fry and feed it them to the main tank... and my sump is clean of algae from them
 
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