Mr speckles - should he go?

[omeg]

Okay, I did a crazy thing today and got Mr speckles and his mate. I heard these guys like to eat hair algae (they do eat them), get along well with others (so far so good), reef safe (haven't seen them pick on any softies or sps yet) and will produce some "live food" for the other tank mates...here's some pix

This is Mr. Speckles:

This is him and his mate, she loves algae and he likes to pick at my sand looking for pods.

The only thing is, they look out of place ...in the reef. So, should he stay or should he go?

 

[rbdesigns]

How slow did you have to acclimate?

 

[818]

Are those freshwater mollies? I was able to acclimate congo puffers since they were cool looking and only 9 bux and the saltwater were 27$.

I say leave em they look unordinary

Sam

 

[omeg]

Sam, they are belly mollies. - platy bodies with molly's big mouth! hehe

 

[Charles99]

yo... that's crazy!

 

[clutch]

lol
i used a mollie to cycle tank but I took out after. It looked to wierd.

 

[omeg]

So far, the results are 4 to stay and 2 to go. At the end of today, i'll make a decision.

There's lots of benefits to keeping him, but the look is just strange. I hate to send him back to petsmart though...

 

[818]

I say leave them they might morph:lol:

 

[tptp279]

i see more benefits than anything else, c'mon, algae grazer, free live food... c'mon!!! lol... now you gotta do a bumble bee goby.

 

[omeg]

Those bumblebees wouldn't look too out of place in a reef tank though Have this been tried? I'm not gonna think about it as my tank is already overstocked. - actually, i've thought about it, but I shouldnt!

 

[tptp279]

yeah, i've had them in my f/o tank before.

 

[omeg]

looks like mr spreckles and his mate will be staying (10 - 3). Thanks for all those that have responded.

 

[pledosophy]

I kept mollies for a few years. They are cool pets. Glad your sticking with them.

 

[WZHANG]

I tried mollies a while back but wasn't successful with them in SW. How did you acclimated those to SW?

 

[tptp279]

you can drip acclimate for 6-8 hours or you can also put in a cup and add a bit of saltwater every 15-30 mins for the same.

 

[jjirsa78]

Many people in the main reef forum say they don't need acclimation at all - apparently super hardy.

Odd. My wife would flip if she saw my reef inhabitants eating baby mollies, though.

 

[g0tmc]

I tried this once. Acclimated for about 8 hours if i remember correct. They died within a couple of weeks and never even had the fry that was in the bloated female's stomach! Took forever to find the dead mollies so i gave up trying. Let us kno if they give offspring, i might try it again.

 

[omeg]

My female gave fries and were quickly eaten; unfortunately in front of my visiting neice who was excited to see a baby fish, then saw a dottyback quickly came out and swallowed it and her face said it all.

They are still doing well and have cleaned most of the hair algae off of my overflow. They do eat a lot of algae so you might want to supplement with some nori or similar if your tank is spotless clean. They won't touch my caulerpa.

In terms of acclimating, they are pretty hardy so you can drop them in or if you're nice, you can do the drip method.

If you're nearby and have hair algae problems, I can loan them to you for a few days.

 

[therealw00]

In Southern San Diego County sailfin mollies are an introduced exotic species. Around the mouth of the Sweetwater River and nearby areas. I have a pair that came from there, straight up saltwater. On the topic of your reef tank, if they are happy and you don't mind them I don't think there is any harm.