I have always kept my mollies in hard, alkeline, brackish water. Though being hardy like most livebearers, they will accept conditions outside their liking. My questions is what (if any) negative health effects would be of keeping them in FW, wheter it being alkeline or somewhat acidic? I do know that their kidneys start to go when outside of alkeline waters, but Im looking for any other problems they may run into. Im asking because my friend who has a planted discus tank tea stained with peat wants some mollies for it. Aside from being not being the best tankmates, hes dead set on keeping some. Hopefully some evidence will persuade him!
Mollies
- Thread starter AMS
- Start date
nmonks
A stroke of the brush does not guarantee art from
Hello AMS --
I'm not a fish physiologist, so I can't tell you exactly what the problems are with keeping mollies in freshwater. Indeed, in some cases, there are no problems at all. The issue is really that none of the commonly traded mollies are pure-bred species, so "what they need in the wild" has no bearing on the aquarium varieties. Most (not all) mollies have at least some genes from the brackish water species, and so most (but not all) mollies tend to best in brackish water.
I rescued a couple of mollies last year that I had to put into a soft, acid water aquarium for want of anywhere else for a short period (a few months). Within weeks, the mollies had developed skin fungus. Once moved to someone else's tank with hard, alkaline water they recovered, although both died a few months later, for reasons unknown to me. All I can say is that soft, acid water is probably a death sentence for mollies. In fact, none of the livebearers can be kept in soft, acid water (with only a few oddball exceptions like halfbeaks).
Even in hard, alkaline water you will tend to find that most mollies will be more disease-prone than specimens kept in brackish water. That mollies do so well in marine aquaria reinforces the agument that these are brackish water fish.
Typical of mollies kept in freshwater, and particularly soft and acid freshwater are:
- Fin rot
- Fungus
- Shimmies (a nerve/swimming problem)
Cheers,
Neale
I'm not a fish physiologist, so I can't tell you exactly what the problems are with keeping mollies in freshwater. Indeed, in some cases, there are no problems at all. The issue is really that none of the commonly traded mollies are pure-bred species, so "what they need in the wild" has no bearing on the aquarium varieties. Most (not all) mollies have at least some genes from the brackish water species, and so most (but not all) mollies tend to best in brackish water.
I rescued a couple of mollies last year that I had to put into a soft, acid water aquarium for want of anywhere else for a short period (a few months). Within weeks, the mollies had developed skin fungus. Once moved to someone else's tank with hard, alkaline water they recovered, although both died a few months later, for reasons unknown to me. All I can say is that soft, acid water is probably a death sentence for mollies. In fact, none of the livebearers can be kept in soft, acid water (with only a few oddball exceptions like halfbeaks).
Even in hard, alkaline water you will tend to find that most mollies will be more disease-prone than specimens kept in brackish water. That mollies do so well in marine aquaria reinforces the agument that these are brackish water fish.
Typical of mollies kept in freshwater, and particularly soft and acid freshwater are:
- Fin rot
- Fungus
- Shimmies (a nerve/swimming problem)
Cheers,
Neale
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