Sailfin Molly

[Aqua Tom]

I was goiing to get a single Angelfish as my centrepiece but because my daughter wanted cardinals that is now a no go.
I was thinking of a sailfin molly as they grow quite big. Would a male be happy on his own or is it recomended to keep a pair?

tank is 180 litre

 

[necava01]

normally you should keep mollies in groups of three or more because they like to school. but if you did a group of 3 (1m, 2f) things should be okay. because if it is just a pair the male will stress out the female. so having the two will lessen the chance of stress related death. but this is just my opinion and what i've been told!

 

[Aqua Tom]

But a male on its own would be no good?

Ok, ty for the insight.

 

[necava01]

But a male on its own would be no good?

Ok, ty for the insight.

of that i am not sure. normally you should get more than one.. but i dont see the problem with having just one male. you do realize that mollies do better in brackish water? keeping them in aquariums without salt makes them more prone to disease and infection.

 

[BIG BAD BARRY]

Agree with necava01.
1 male with 2 female is the minimum.
They breed easily. Had loads of fry!
They swim together beautifully

 

[Uriel]

Cardinals get too big for angel fish to eat so as long as you start with a young angel it will be fine. Angels eat neon tetra in the wild but these are smaller.

Angel fish are also a lot less likely to try to eat any fish they grow up with so if you buy him small you shouldn't have an issue.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Cardinals get too big for angel fish to eat so as long as you start with a young angel it will be fine. Angels eat neon tetra in the wild but these are smaller.

Angel fish are also a lot less likely to try to eat any fish they grow up with so if you buy him small you shouldn't have an issue.

AHA! now that is what I wanted to hear. Any more coments on this?

 

[OldMan47]

I am going to be the wet blanket here. I love my mollies but their water needs are very different to the needs of cardinal tetras. Cardinals do great in soft water with a neutral to slightly acid pH. Pet shop mollies do best in quite hard water with a pH of over 7.5. If you have one type of water or the other, you will do better sticking to the fish that will thrive in your water. Getting a full display from a sailfin male will be far easier if there is a female present to impress, but he will happily live without a female present as long as he is not alone in his tank. With a tank your size, do not expect a juvenile sailfin male molly to reach his full potential. As large as the tank seems, sailfin mollies need lots of swimming room to grow to their full potential. If you were doing it commercially, you would grow them out in a long pond.

 

[waterdrop]

Oldman47, if I may, I'd like to also help necava01 with a further quote from one of your previous posts on the topic of mollies:

"Contrary to what somebody already said, pet shop mollies do not need salt or even brackish water. What they do need is water fairly high in mineral content with a pH above 7.0. For me that is easy. I have a hard time keeping angels healthy because my water is too hard for them and has a pH of 7.8. Mine just thrive in tap water but I realize that water is not the same everywhere. Many mollies do not do well in hard water or high pH water but you will seldom find those mollies in a pet shop. They are the province of livebearer specialists. With over 20 wild species called molly as a part of their common name, all different kinds of waters are right for different molly species. I only had pet shop mollies until I went to a livebearer fish convention last month. Now I also have some Poecilia caucana which is a wild type molly that also does well in my hard water.
Many of the more common mollies can tolerate salt as high as the salt water used for a reef tank and were used in the past to cycle a saltwater tank. (I don't know if it is still common practice.) These fish are tough as long as you don't restrict their water's mineral content."

This was a very thorough explanation which I remembered you giving in the past so I looked it back up. WD

ps. Keep at it Tom!

 

[symon_say]

Check the hi fin lyretail swordfish, i was on the same boat as you, an see that fish in LFS and it was really beautiful. And grows as much as mollies.

 

[Tarpan]

I'm not sure how they do alone but I have 2 Sailfin molly's in a 40 gal and they are so far the life of the tank. Really high energy and the two of them are constantly chasing each other around. One male shows off a lot more than the other, but I love having them both. I didn't expect them to be my favorite fish but so far they are due to their high energy.