joeycasperanita

Hi all! I have a small freshwater tank with 2 black mollies and 1 sailfin molly...I added some salt to the tank as recommended and the fish are doing great (all female) and the fish store that I go to said most other fish would be ok with that amt of salt (1tbsp per 5 gallon) since it's so little in comparison to what salt levels could be. I've generally found that there's SO MUCH contradictory info out there so I am using people's experiences here along with my fish store to figure out how to best keep my fish happy. I have my 3 mollies in the 10 gallon, as I mentioned, and they seem to be enjoying the space. I don't really think I want or need to add anything else in there since I don't want to overcrowd and they are just so happy. I can't really imagine where anything else would fit! I don't know. I want fish I can upgrade to a 55 gallon in the future and now I'm worried that the mollies won't be happy with anything else (opinions on a species only molly tank?). My LFS said they are passive fish though and as long as they have company they'd be fine. Not sure what to do...

Stradius011

I wouldn't recomend mollies to beginners since they're not hardy as guppies or platies, but you can put them with platies, swordtails, neon tetras and corycatfish.

Buzz

That is really good advice from Stradius. Also, when stocking your 55g, your ratio should be about 3 females to 1 male ...if put in too many males ... they tend to be quite agressive to each other.

Buzz

joeycasperanita

I have since read that and I wish the store hadn't told me they were good for beginners and hardy. But the plus side is I'm super vigilant about tank levels since it's small and I think I will only keep the 3 in there for now but they are doing really really well and are active and play with each other and me and tend to all get along well, probably because they are female. Now, am I better to leave them in a 10g by themselves when I get my 55 or put them in with other fish?

Anita

Richard

Three female Mollies in a ten-gal. tank, means you can safely add one male Molly..and for variety, three Swordtails or Platties (one male and two females)..the three species get along great together as long as there are more females than males..although beware of the occasional male Molly/Swordtail/Platy who will want all the females for himself and bully all other males regardless to species.

0morrokh

With salt in the tank, I would only put in livebearers, and definately not catfish or loaches which are very sensitive to salt. However, many people consider salt unnecessary for Mollies, and if you took it out you could keep pretty much anything with them.

joeycasperanita

since my latest molly died I think I will keep only my original 2 in the 10g. later to move to bigger tank with other fish. but my lfs told me for the amt of salt in the tank (1 tbs per 5g) it is almost negligible to other fish and that i could keep almost anything with them?
maybe not salt sensitive fish, but would other fish have an issue with this amt of salt?
also, am i to keep doing my ammonia readings every morning and partial water changes after until it's zero? it's at about 0.25 now. I will do a complete water level testing tomorrow morning and post results for interpretation!
thanks
anita

0morrokh

One thing you'll find out is that people at fish stores are not always reliable. The amount of salt you are adding would probably not harm most fish, but they could definately feel it. I do not recommend keeping non-livebearers in water with any amount of salt in it. Some people would disagree with me though--salt can be beneficial to fish. However, it doesn't really matter, since in a tank of that size you don't really have room to add a whole lot else. I would just get like two more Mollies.

joeycasperanita

I wasn't really planning to get anything else BUT when I upgrade should I leave out the salt then?

0morrokh

It's your choice of course, but I would personally leave out the salt. You probably want to make the transition from salty water to non-salty water gradually so you don't shock the mollies. In other words, start adding water without salt when you do water changes so the salt in their current tank is gradually diluted, then move them to a salt-free tank.