Best Fish with Angels and Mollys?

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MyFishKaren

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What fish pair best with Angels and Mollys?

I currently have 2 angels and 1 Dalmatian Molly. Should I just get another Angel or Molly?

Thanks,
MyFishKaren
 
Hi there!

I learned that some good fish to live with angels are kuhli loaches or silver dollars. For mollies I would suggest guppies, tetras or platys. I had a balloon molly with a few guppies and they got along just fine.
 
I don't recommend mixing angelfish and mollies together due to them having completely different water chemistry requirements. Angels naturally occur in soft acid water vs mollies coming from hard alkaline water that sometimes has salt in it. Domestic angelfish are more tolerant of hard water but not particularly fond of extremely alkaline water or salt. They do adapt but it is preferable to keep fish in water that is similar to what they evolved in.

If you can get the pH around 7.4 and keep the general hardness (GH) around 250-300ppm, you might be ok. However, if the water is too soft (less than 250ppm) the mollies will have problems, if the water is too hard or too alkaline, (pH above 8.0) the angels could have problems. The angelfish will tolerate hard water better than the mollies tolerate soft water, so if you do mix them, try to go for harder water.

How hard is your water supply and what is the pH of it?

And don't add any new fish until the ammonia and nitrite have been on 0 for a few weeks, and until everything has been good for at least 2 weeks. You lost a gourami today and they could cause problems during the next few weeks. Patience grasshopper, the fish will come when the tank is ready :)
 
I don't recommend mixing angelfish and mollies together due to them having completely different water chemistry requirements. Angels naturally occur in soft acid water vs mollies coming from hard alkaline water that sometimes has salt in it. Domestic angelfish are more tolerant of hard water but not particularly fond of extremely alkaline water or salt. They do adapt but it is preferable to keep fish in water that is similar to what they evolved in.

If you can get the pH around 7.4 and keep the general hardness (GH) around 250-300ppm, you might be ok. However, if the water is too soft (less than 250ppm) the mollies will have problems, if the water is too hard or too alkaline, (pH above 8.0) the angels could have problems. The angelfish will tolerate hard water better than the mollies tolerate soft water, so if you do mix them, try to go for harder water.

How hard is your water supply and what is the pH of it?

And don't add any new fish until the ammonia and nitrite have been on 0 for a few weeks, and until everything has been good for at least 2 weeks. You lost a gourami today and they could cause problems during the next few weeks. Patience grasshopper, the fish will come when the tank is ready :)

I do not have the exact number for my specific household GH at the moment, but the city in which I live has around 120-180ppm or harder. My house does not have a water softener so we have harder water than most in my neighborhood. Is high pH a sign for hard water?

I will eliminate the ammonia and nitrite from my water before purchasing any new fish. I was asking now so I wouldn't have to worry about getting a quick enough answer before actually purchasing a fish. I see how this would convey I was getting a fish sooner rather than later.

Thanks,
MyFishKaren
 
Your water is probably too soft for the long term survival of mollies. If you could get it up a bit higher to 250ppm or a bit more then it would be better for them. To raise the GH you can add some Rift Lake water conditioner at about 1/4 strength. You will need to monitor the GH of the water when using this and add more or less Rift Lake conditioner with each water change. I use to make up 200 litres of water at about 1/2 strength, then use that for water changes. Every month or so I would check the pH and GH of the mains water and if it had changed, then adjust the amount of Rift Lake conditioner I used. I use to keep the GH around 250-300ppm for most of my fish.
*NB* The Rift Lake conditioner will also raise the pH of the water.

There are specific water conditioners (mineral salts) you can buy for mollies but most of them contain a lot of sodium chloride (salt) and this is bad for angelfish. Whereas the Rift Lake conditioner has mostly calcium and magnesium rather than sodium type salts.

A high pH is usually associated with lots of minerals in the water (eg: hard water/ high GH = high pH) but not always. Most water supply companies add chlorine/ chloramine and that can raise the pH, and they can add buffers to raise the pH so the copper pipes don't corrode as readily.

My water is very soft (less than 50ppm of GH) but has a pH around 8.8 so is soft but very alkaline. The pH of my tap water is being raised by the stuff the water corporation adds but denies adding :)
 

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