What Other Fish Will Do Well With Mollies?

Neale put it better then I ever could, so just listen to him. :p Totally agree though, I was having a blonde moment(s) when I was thinking about other fish. Sorry. :*)

Guppies could work with Mollies, as long as you have both males and females of both sexes, or just females. I don't think I'd put all males together.

But if you are going to go for brackish, get other brackish fish to go with them. Acclimating the Guppies to that might not work so well, seeing as how inbred and weak they are now. :/
 
Well if you are looking for colorful fish then you could go with a german ram depending on your size of your tank. Hopefully 20 gallon+
If your are new to the whole thing then dont go for it. But of you think you can handle it then go for it. They need a havely planted aquarium along with 2-3 water changes in a week. They have a lifespawn of 3 years. To check more on these fish check the fish index. I think they can live with your mollies depenind on their species. Im not sure on the hardness and other stuff you mentioned. But im guessing they will go with it because they do fine with tetras, and as some1 menitoned tetras do fine with mollies. You can do your reaserch on these fish. They are very colorful and a unique addiation to the tank.
 
Thanks, nmonks! So by not adding the salt to the water as the mollies need, it can (and probably will) cause them to have a fungus? X-ray/diamond/blind cave tetras do well in the pH that I now have, but wouldn't be good with the salt. Guppies, rainbows, chromides would be suitable because of their salt tolerance. I'm making sure I'm getting this down right. What about the gouramis? Would they be good tankmates?
 
Exactly so. Provided the pH and hardness are high, adding salt to an aquarium with mollies is not essential, but if you do add salt, the likelihood of any health problems decreases dramatically.

pH 7.2, no salt: X-ray/diamond/blind cave tetras, also gouramis, guppies, platies, swordtails, rainbows
pH 7.5 no salt: guppies, platies, swordtails, rainbows
pH 7.5, a bit of salt: guppies, platies, swordtails, rainbows, orange chromides

Dwarf gouramis, honey gouramis, and chocolate gouramis are really best kept at pH 6.5 to 7.0. Dwarf gouramis especially are 100% likely to be contaminated with a mysterious bacteria that as soon as they get even a little bit stressed they seem to die. Do a search on Google or on these forums and you'll see many reports of this. Basically, I don't recommend anyone keep dwarf gouramis without a quarantine tank and without exactly the right water conditions.

Pearl, moonlight, and blue gouramis are much hardier and will do well at up to pH 7.5 provided salt isn't used. I like pearl gouramis in particular. Blue gouramis (and the yellow morph of the same species) can become aggressive. Presumably this is the males. But otherwise, gouramis are good all-rounders.

If you want to keep the mollies in a brackish water system (arguably the best approach) then you can widen your net to include orange chromides, bumblebee gobies, glassfish, halfbeaks, candy-stripe gobies and a bunch of other cool fish.

Mollies are lovely fish. In a recent magazine article (Practical Fishkeeping, December 2005) I wrote an article called "Five nearly perfect fish", and the number one fish on the list was the black molly. For me, it has everything: it's active, friendly, and quickly settles into an aquarium. It looks handsome in a totally different way to other fish, and healthy black mollies have a velvety darkness that stands out amazingly against green plants (live or fake). Mollies are, of course, relatively easy to breed. The fact that it demands a specific water chemistry is really the only problem with the fish, but if you use the need for high pH and salt as an excuse to keep other salt-loving oddballs, so much the better!

Cheers,

Neale
 
I appreciate all the help with this.

I would like to get a pleco at some point to keep the algae in check. Would a pleco be okay with the brackish water?
 
If you have a substantial amount of algea and will continue to let it grow...ottos are fine algea eaters..and they stay small. But they need a good deal of algea to munch, or I've heard they can starve to death.
 
In short, no.

While the hardier plecs (e.g., Hypostomus punctatus) will do just fine even in quite hard, alkaline water, they don't like brackish water. Some people have adapted them to very low salinities (specific gravity 1.003 or less), which is fine for mollies, but you need to bear in mind that even this low a salinity is stressing the plec, and over the long term is likely to shorten the life of the fish.

On the other hand, Malayan livebearing snails and Colombian ramshorns will adapt to this salinity very easily, and they readily eat algae. The latter will also eat plants, though. Mollies will also peck away at green algae, though they don't seem to eat brown algae or hair algae at all. Algae is almost always an issue to be managed in brackish water tanks. The simplest approach is to use lots of light and a good substrate, and so grow lots of true plants. Where plants are thriving, algae won't be. Contrary to popular misconception, there are lots of plants that are widely sold and grow well in slightly brackish water. Usually when people report that plants have failed in their brackish water aquarium, the issue has been with the lighting rather than the water chemistry. See here for more.

Cheers,

Neale

I would like to get a pleco at some point to keep the algae in check. Would a pleco be okay with the brackish water?
 
Is it okay if I have the ratio of females to males as 3:1 (or 4:1) with silver, black and marbled (dalmation) mollies? Or do each type of molly need it's own ratio?

I didn't even think of having snails in the aquarium instead of a pleco. I don't really have much algae, but my tank has only been set up for a few weeks. Would I even need snails if I have mollies who eat it? The little algae that has accumulated is already been eaten by the mollies.
 
Is it okay if I have the ratio of females to males as 3:1 (or 4:1) with silver, black and marbled (dalmation) mollies? Or do each type of molly need it's own ratio?

I didn't even think of having snails in the aquarium instead of a pleco. I don't really have much algae, but my tank has only been set up for a few weeks. Would I even need snails if I have mollies who eat it? The little algae that has accumulated is already been eaten by the mollies.

Your ratio is fine, doesn't matter about variety/color. You dont need the snails, but I personally like having something non fish in my aquarium, so I would get 1 or 2 if I were you. You could feed them algea wafers or a cucomber.

Good luck with whatever decision you make.
 
Thanks love fish! I have three little tiny snails that came with the plants. Are they the same as the big ones you buy?
 
Thanks love fish! I have three little tiny snails that came with the plants. Are they the same as the big ones you buy?

IDK if they're the same, depends on the way they look. I know theres an index of snails somewhere on this site.
 

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