ssanubisss

Hello I was getting ready to add some new fish to my freshwater tank 15 gal its been established for 2 mo maybe a little more and it has 3 male mollies in it. i was thinking about putting in maybe 6-8 neon tetras in there with them i just wanted to know if they would be a good addition and maybe some good suggestions as to what i could add instead of them.

TFA101

15 gallons is not much of a tank to work with, espicially if you already have 3 mollies in it. I wouldn't reccomend adding any more fish to the tank unless they are balloon mollies, which grow considerably smaller than the sailfins and shortfin mollys, which in some cases grow as long as 6". Plus, the requirements of mollies in regards to the water chemistry differ from the requirements of the neon tetras. To thrive, neon tetras need soft acidic water with a pH of anywhere between 6.0-7.0, whereas the mollies need hard and preferably brackish water, with a pH over 7.0

pinkfloydpuffer

I agree with TFA... and if your mollies are anything like mine were, then they can get quite mean and nasty at times.

ssanubisss

well thats kind of a bummer i bought the mollies because they were suppost to be community fish and now you guys are telling me i am very restricted on what i can put in with them

TFA101

well not really. you're only restricted to what you can put with them because you have a fairly small tank. 15 gallons is not much room to work with, but if you had a larger tank, you could have your mollies along with other hardwater fish.

also, the aggression of male mollies occurs due to a dominance thing among the males. aggression among male and females occurs during mating time (which for the male is anytime). aside from that, mollies can be very peaceful and can be kept with a variety of different fish when kept in spacious quarters

sirdarksol

Welcome to Fishlore!
I deleted the duplicate thread on this. It's much harder to track multiple threads with the same information, so it's best to just post a question once.

ssanubisss

I would love to have a bigger tank but thats just not in my budget at the moment at least so I guess im stuck with just 3 fish in my tank. I do love my mollies and will keep them in there by themselves so they can be happy but I am dissapointed that i wont be able to keep any other fish to look at

pinkfloydpuffer

Maybe you could get some kind of bottom feeders? I'm not sure which ones are compatible with the mollies, but I'm sure someone does. If you can get one that's pretty small, there might be something you can get. Not sure though.

angelfish220

You could probably get away with some corys or ottos

ssanubisss

I have been reading a little about corys and otos and from what i've read they really need to be in groups of at least 4 with enough room at the bottom of the tank to swim around in. My tank has plants and other assorted decorations at the bottom that really limits the area where they would be able to swim. I had a thought though would i be able to keep some ghost shrimp or something in there ?? also i know there is a debate regarding putting salt in the tank or not for mollies well i had decided to not put salt in the tank so the tank is a fresh water tank. I dont know the hardness or the ph of the tank but my mollies are showing signs of being healthy ie. active fins nice and spread out no gasping they are getting along extremely well also no signs of agression no nipping or bitting either. ok i know ive been very long winded here but i hope this info helps with some suggestions i would like to have something else in there but if it wouldn't be good for my fish ill keep it like this although it tends to look more than a little empty but ohh well maybe I can try to work some overtime and save up for a nice 30-50 gal tank. thanks for any and all of the advice you all are giving me this is the most helpfull fish forum i have been able to find

GouramiGirl1221

I think some ghost shrimp would work well as long as you have some extra filtration. They have a tiny bio-load, so they shouldn't effect things too much.

I understand you being disappointed to find out you can't keep more fish. I'm sure right now your mollies are relatively small so it looks like more fish will fit, but as the others have said they'll each reach at least 5 inches. I'd like to commend you on making the decision that's best for the fish you already have!