Mollies And Salt

[FishEnthusiast]

I have heard and read in many places that mollies need salt and that in the wild they come from brackish waters. I have a pair of wild type P. Latipinna that were collected from the Rio San Antonio River. I also know their ancestors were collected in August of 1998. They have never been kept in salt and from what I can find online the Rio San Antonio is a fresh water river. As I know the collection site, and how the breeder kept their fish do I need to add salt to the molly tank? At the present time I do add a bit of marine salt at water change time, but the amount is not nearly enough to consider the water brackish. I only add it to the water to help harden it as my water is very soft from the tap.

The breeder of the P. Latipinna has won many awards at ALA conventions for his amazing specimens of fish. The pair I received were about 3 months old and already they were at least 3" long. He keeps the wild strains to cross into his domestic strains to improve finnage and hardiness.

My mollies are breeding and healthy and over all do not show signs of stress by not being kept in brackish conditions. I also have a pair of wild type P. Sphenops that are kept in freshwater conditions with no detriment to their health. They too are healthy, growing well and breeding like all livebearers do. I do not own any commercial strains of mollies, nor have any of my mollies been purchased in a store. My regular tank husbandry includes weekly water changes with the water being treated with about a tablespoon of salt and prime. I have no problem upping the salt content in the sailfin molly tank. They are kept with L. Tridens that were collected from an area that has slightly brackish conditions and I am sure they would be just as happy with more salt in their water as they are with the amount of salt that is in the water now. What is your opinion?

 

[helterskelter]

I agree that many molly's don't need salt, but you have fish from wild stock which are quality fish, the cultivated strains had been in breed for many 100's of generations now and now resualt in needing more salt to reduce the stress levels in the fish.

I've talked about 98% of livebearers not needing any salt as they never see it in nature. But most people think I mean Cultivated livebeares which is a different story.

ALA is the beast place to get fish as well as BLA and www.viviparous.org.uk in the UK

Your doing fine and will never need salt only for treatments is u do so.

Helter

 

[FishEnthusiast]

I agree that many molly's don't need salt, but you have fish from wild stock which are quality fish, the cultivated strains had been in breed for many 100's of generations now and now resualt in needing more salt to reduce the stress levels in the fish.

I've talked about 98% of livebearers not needing any salt as they never see it in nature. But most people think I mean Cultivated livebeares which is a different story.

ALA is the beast place to get fish as well as BLA and www.viviparous.org.uk in the UK

Your doing fine and will never need salt only for treatments is u do so.

Helter

That is comforting to know. I knew I was getting quality fish, I insist upon it in all my tanks. I rarely purchase livebearers from the lfs mainly because you don't know where they came from. I enjoy my mollies very much and I am glad I don't have to add salt if I don't want to.

 

[theotheragentm]

A note to add is that because most strains you buy from your local pet store have been crossed over and over so many times, they require the salt or very clean water conditions. I have a few Mollies and I go with and understocked and overfiltered tank to keep my water very clean and skip the salt.

 

[helterskelter]

Thanks theotheragentm, I had already stated that as well. Smale that most people think that all livebeares are so easy to keep!!!

 

[FishEnthusiast]

Livebearers are definately not easy to keep. So many species have different requirements, and domestic strains can be extremely fragile (i.e. fancy guppies).

Every day is a learning experience in the livebearer world!

 

[nmonks]

The issue with salt and mollies is complex and there's no simple answer. Genetics is part of the answer, but so too is water quality. But here's my take: 100% of all the mollies sold in aquarium shops will do well in brackish water (even seawater). But only 50% of mollies sold in aquarium shops will do well (i.e., never get fungus or finrot) when kept in freshwater. To me, adding marine salt mix is a no-brainer: it raises the total dissolved solids, buffers against pH change, reduces nitrate toxicity, and is a safety net for any mollies with brackish water genes in them (e.g., from Poecilia gillii, a truly brackish water species). Even your freshwater mollies will do well in brackish water.

So for the average aquarist keeping mollies in a tank where the nitrates are above 10-20 mg/l and the pH fluctutes downwards between water changes, doing without salt is a risk. Some folks get away with, but lots don't -- just see how many messages we get here about sickly mollies.

Of course, mollies have become established all around the world by "accident" and often in freshwater habitats. But in all those cases, water quality is very high compared with aquarium conditions (which are, compared with the wild, too high in nitrates and phosphates). On the other hand, mollies are also established in brackish and marine habitats around the world to, e.g., Poecilia sphenops in the Gulf of Thailand.

Cheers, Neale

 

[rollntider]

http/www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Desc...ilfinMolly.html

this might help , an article on sailfin mollies, they are found in fresh, and brackish. I am sure a mollie , guppy platy etc, if the water conditions are clean can live in any of the salt or no salt environments, as long as the ph and the quality was right.

 

[nmonks]

No argument with this. The issue isn't whether mollies live in freshwater in the wild (they quite obviously do, perhaps more commonly than in brackish and certainly more commonly than in the sea). The question is whether they do better in aquaria when kept without salt, and the answer to that is much less clear-cut.

Cheers, Neale

http/www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Desc...ilfinMolly.html

this might help , an article on sailfin mollies, they are found in fresh, and brackish. I am sure a mollie , guppy platy etc, if the water conditions are clean can live in any of the salt or no salt environments, as long as the ph and the quality was right.

 

[theotheragentm]

In nature, yes they are found in both fresh and salt environments, but all the breeding for fish stores generally results in fish that need salt or immaculate water conditions.

 

[kribensis12]

I kept mollies for years, and they always died from" shimmying" and fungus or just died. I never kept them for becuase of this reson. So I turned my tank into a brackish set-up and the mollies died of old age, not diseases! In my oppinion mollies really do need salt.

 

[theotheragentm]

kribensis12, I'm kind of confused. Your birth date indicates you are about 14 years old. Assuming that is correct, how could you have kept Mollies for years, having them die and then keep Mollies that died of old age? You would have had to have been pretty young. What is your experience level with these fish?