Hi People

[RedSandman]

Hi,
 
Just joined the forum and thought I would say hi to everyone.
 
I'm just setting up a small tank and thought I would try a brackish tank with Mollies (Peocilia latipinna or P. sphenops). Looking for advice and other peoples experiences.
 
K.

 

[Ch4rlie]

to TFF
 
You have come to the right place, there are a fair few molly fans on this site and they are sure to advise you about setting up brackish waters for mollies when you are ready.
 
Have you already got your small tank  (what size is this tank BTW?) and is it cycled yet?
If not, do have a read of this to help you get started.
 
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first/

 

[RedSandman]

Tank
The Tank is a 35L (Arcadoia Ellipse), I would prefer a larger tank but space/location is a premium in our house. It has an internal filter (Classica Powerbio 200) and an internal heater (Aqua One 55W) set to 26C.

Water
The local area is hard water 17.3dH with a pH of 7.7 and a fairly high nitrate level of 23mg/l. I haven't added the marine salt yet. Aiming for an SG of between 1.006 - 1.008. I was going to add the salt once the tank has cycled.

 
Substrate is mixed small gravel. The plants are artificial. I thought with the small size tank adding live plants would add another variable to consider and being brackish wouldn't grow very well.

Proposed Stocking Levels
I was going to keep just a single male with either 2 or 3 females. I was looking for a algae/ground feeder but haven't found a species of small enough size that can tolerate a brackish environment.

It's not cycled yet and has only been set-up a few days. Water has been added to the tank with 'water conditioner' to remove chlorine and chloramine. I was going for a fish less cycle but I am having trouble sourcing Ammonium Hydroxide. So I was going to resort to a small pinch of flake fish food daily as a starter. Today I have just purchased some Nutrafin Cycle to boost the cycling bacteria. I intend checking Ammonium, Nitrite and Nitrate levels every 2 days.

 

 

[Dreamer03]

Welcome to forum!!!!! And mollies are cool fish to have!!

 

[Ch4rlie]

It's not cycled yet and has only been set-up a few days. Water has been added to the tank with 'water conditioner' to remove chlorine and chloramine. I was going for a fish less cycle but I am having trouble sourcing Ammonium Hydroxide. So I was going to resort to a small pinch of flake fish food daily as a starter. Today I have just purchased some Nutrafin Cycle to boost the cycling bacteria. I intend checking Ammonium, Nitrite and Nitrate levels every 2 days.

 
All sounds good planning to me.
 
One thing though, don't resort to a small pinch of fish food  daily as this is not a reliable method of dosing ammonia.
 
I have heard people are having trouble sourcing ammonia from Homebase, there are still a few stores that still stock these, you might find some in the 'Household Cleaning' section or words to that affect in the store.
That is a 500ml white bottle with a blue lid, labelled Homebase Value - Household Ammonia. usually has 9.5% Ammonium Hydroxide.
 
Or you can go online on Bay for this -
 
http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Concentrated-Aquarium-Ammonia-for-Fishless-Cycling-Fish-Tank-Use-High-Strength-/181130184497?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item2a2c334731
 
This is what I have uses successfully for cycling 3 tanks so far. This is made purely for aquatium cycling and is at 35% strength, so is much stronger and must be careful in calculating dosages with this.
 
Also have heard that Kleen Off Ammonia from Amazon website is a fairly popular brand -
 
http/www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_6?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=kleenoff+ammonia&sprefix=kleeno%2Caps%2C183&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Akleenoff+ammonia
 
So one of those three should be fine for ammonia for fishless cycling.
 
Hope that helps.
 
Pity I don't get sponsored by these companies for advertising...lol only joking.

 

[RedSandman]

 
Also have heard that Kleen Off Ammonia from Amazon website is a fairly popular brand -
 
http/www.amazon.co...leenoff ammonia

 
Great. Just ordered that online and should arrive in a few days, Thanks.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Unfortunately this tank size is much too small for even 1 molly, let alone a male and a few females. I recommend picking a different fish.

 

[Klonoa50]

Hi there! 
 
I'm also new to the forums, but saw this topic and thought I'd pop in, since my first tank was a ten-gallon molly tank.  I would tend to agree with Ninjouzata on the tank size.  I kept 2 female and one male balloon molly in my ten-gallon, and they seemed to be constantly stressed.  Admittedly, at the time I had NO idea what I was doing, which probably attributed to a lot of the problem, but the fish were constantly agitated and bullying one another.  When I finally lost one due to bullying, I had a friend re-house them in his 40-gallon tank and they mellowed out and began swimming together very quickly.  I talked with him and a couple other friends of mine after the incident and they all said that a 10-gallon wasn't big enough for that many mollies (they thought I might be able to get away with just 1 in that tank, but understanding is mollies are relatively social). 
 
Again, I'd like to point out I had no idea what I was doing, and I doubt my tank was ever truly cycled (was set up for about 3 months before I re-homed the fish and I did 50% water changes a week without ever doing an initial cycle), so the problem coulda been with any number of other things.  Just figured I'd chime in with my experience and what my buddies had told me.    Whatever ya end up getting, I hope ya enjoy the fish, and welcome again to the forums! 

 

[RedSandman]

 
Unfortunately this tank size is much too small for even 1 molly, let alone a male and a few females. I recommend picking a different fish.

 
OK. I did some research on the Internet and although some people said 10gal was too small other people said that they had kept a few mollies in that size tank with no apparent stress to the fish. But erring on the side of caution and in the interest of the health of the fish I will take your advice and look at keeping a few guppies or tetras.
 
The Brackish Mollie tank can be the next project.

 

[Ninjouzata]

From what I've seen, everyone says 30g. They get to a decent size and are fairly active. I personally havn't kept them though.
Here is a list consisting of some suggestions for nano tanks, which might help you in your decision of what you'll keep instead: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/418749-nano-fish/ 

 

[RedSandman]

 
Here is a list consisting of some suggestions for nano tanks, which might help you in your decision of what you'll keep instead: http/www.fishforum...8749-nano-fish/ 

 
Yes, thanks for the link. I had come across that list.