Hi,

Can you please give me any fish that will go with Lyretail Mollies!

Have asked an aquarium super store lady and she said "Mollies are agresive, and hard to look after."

Is this true, what fish should I get, please Help.

Thank you so much, I apprieciate it alot!

This post has been edited by drsoda007: May 11 2008, 05:47 AM

I have had the odd molly that was aggressive but 99% of community peaceful fish. They do get racey when you drop the food in but thats because they are gannets! I have some in a community tank with gouramis,cherry barbs,pentazona barbs, its all in my profile. I still breed a few mollies and wouldnt say they were an aggressive fish. (To see my profile, left click on my name and click on view member profile-my tanks are at the bottom of the page)

This post has been edited by Piltdownpaul: May 11 2008, 08:48 AM

Mollies can be kept with many if not most fish from about 1 1/2 inches long to about 3 or 4 inches. After 3 or 4 inches some of the other fish may cause problems for the mollies if they are aggressive. My rainbow cichlids at about 5 inches are fine with them but that's a bit unusual for a fish that big. If you are trying to breed and keep fry it wll limit who can go in with them. Many fish are much more likely to hunt down and eat fry than the mollies but mollies will do it too. Having fry survive in a community tank is something that I seldom see happen because most fish will eat live fish that are small enough.

If this aquarium store lady was the same one who told you to fishless cycle by setting up the tank and doing nothing to it for a fortnight, haven't you seen what you need to know?
Mollies are the largest (with the possible exception of some rarely available swordtails) and most intelligent of the common livebearers. They are not really suitable for the general community tank because they require some salt in the water. Many community fish (most catfish, most tetras, many other small schooling fish) cannot tolerate salt. If you want to keep neons or other small tetras, corydoras catfish, or anything really small (less than about 4cm) mollies aren't an option.

Other livebearers (platies, guppies, swordtails) can all be kept with mollies as they will tolerate the amount of salt that mollies require. There are reports of mollies being kept successfully in freshwater tanks (I've done it) but the water quality has to be impeccable. I wouldn't call them 'hard to look after' though. Other livebearers are hardier.

Platies are very peaceful, you can keep them with anything that isn't big enough to eat them. The only problems you get are when there are slow or shy fish in the tank because the platies eat all the food.

What else were you thinking of keeping other than livebearers and how big is the tank?

get a blue/red ram i have one he is so placid and is adorable. and some shoaling fish but if the mollie gets to be a bit of a hanful get him a seperate tank

Any other common livebearers will go with it and other small fish above 2cm.

The tank is a 35 Gallon Glass tank.

I was planning on adding Mollies, Platies, Guppies, Plecos and possibly some other fish (any ideas)

I've had Mollies and Platys in a 95 gallon tank for over a year now. They all get along fine, the only aggressoin i see would be between my big sailfin molly and the other male mollies, he just chases the other males away from the females but other then that there's no problem. I currently have small clown loaches in there aswell, they're doing great. The clown loaches are awesome! they consumed my explosion of snails overnight!!
I also had some guppies in there, they lasted about 6 months. I would not put guppies in there again purely because they didn't survive with the bigger fish.
And as for the mollies being hard to look after I find it's actually the platys that are the hard ones!! I haven't had one molly death but i've had a few platys die unfortunately.

i have a lyre tail (male) mollie was given to me at lfs. he was suppose to be a male balloon mollie but some how it turned out to be not lol.

anyhow i got him with platies, mollies, and cardinal tetras without any problems what so ever.

be careful with the mollies. as a newb i picked 3 because that fit my tank and they are community fish blah blah blah....well i picked a perfect breeding trio! I had 3 sets of babies before i knew what to do! thankfully, i found them a good home (through the forum). hopefully they are breeding excessively!!!

as for the salt, i guess i have impeccable water because i never had fin rot, fungus or the shimmies. i gave away all but one female fry. she lives with a betta, a rainbow shark, a pleco (Bristlenose, they stay small <3 in.) a japanese algea eating shrimp and an apple snail.

if you don't get mollies or if you choose to not salt your tank, look into african dwarf frogs. these guys are kinda cute. i always see them at my LFS but i haven't googled them so I don't know if they are hard to keep or what they get along with. mystery snails are good. cannulas are pretty, too. i would personally avoid rams of any kind....damned breeders only good for puffer food... loaches are good fish to get for a large tank. clown loaches are good but they like snails. yoyo loaches are pretty, but i have have not been able to find any so i don't know where they are sold.

i was impressed to see the varying kinds of aquatic life that could be put together. i have fish, a shrimp, snails, plants, daphnia (these are invertebrates that i would classify as freshwater plankton--don't know where these came from--but they are there for sure!) my tank is only 5 gal.

floating plants are nice. these and all plants need an aquatic plant fertilizer added to promote root growth. plants are good for the substrate too because they will use the nitrogen produced by the detritus that rots there. if you choose to buy plants, look for good roots. my LFS sold me a couple bunches of plants before i realized they had no stinkin' roots! silly me. i should have though to check! they look ugly at first, but once you get it in your tank and cover the roots a live plant is a great addition.

my final tip of this long ass post: if you get plants and snails, buy algea chips/wafers to feed the snails or your plants are dinner item #1!!!!!!

some compatable fish that i have had are guppys,platys,swordtails,all of the tetras,bettas,some gouramis,rasboras,pencilfish,rams,small bichers,small pirahnas,and scats. just to name a few.
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