Sailfin Mollies

[subsea]

Interested in purchising frresh watewr mollies to control hair algae.

[+dapettit]

Pat,

Does this really work and how do you acclimate them?

Dave-

[prof]

I have never thought to use them for algae control. Mollies can be acclimated to full salt but it has to be done slowly. I'm interested if you have any luck.

I would go with a lawnmower blenny or a tang or butterfly if you have room for algae control.

[mooric]

I was able to acclimate one easily enough....just took ~5hours of drip acclimation. The fished lived for ~8months and then mysteriously died without warning. I think it cost me $1.50 from Petsmart.

[Christian]

Yea their a several so called freshwater fish that are actuly brackish water fish so they can ither be fresh or salt. Such as mollies, and guppies. Which both I have been able to acclimate to salt water, over a month time is the best. So they can get used to the salt.

[subsea]

Pat,

Does this really work and how do you acclimate them?

Dave-

It takes less than 12 hours to make the initial adjustment with fresh water mollies. o I prefer the C-Quest mollies as they have been in full strength ocean for eons in the Carribbean. I prefer the large dorsal fin and the varied colors bred into these fish. Due to their marine heritage these fish are alreaqdy loaded with Omega 3 nutriants. The inferior colors get fed to the lions. I have keep these fish in my display tanks with great results. However, my first priority is using these fish in my seaweed growout systems. I feed the fish and the fish feed the seaweed. Since mollies are herbivores,they are excellant hair algae cleaners. If I can not market these beautiful fish, then I will switch to marine Talapia and eat my second food crop. Yes, that is right, I harvest seaweed to eat and herbivore fish to sell or to eat.

Keeping the peace,

Patrick

[+Hydro]

Yea their a several so called freshwater fish that are actuly brackish water fish so they can ither be fresh or salt. Such as mollies, and guppies. Which both I have been able to acclimate to salt water, over a month time is the best. So they can get used to the salt.

I have a green spotted puffer that can live in fresh, brackish, or full marine. They mostly live in fresh and brackish in the wild. Their life span typically is only about 1 1/2 - 2 yrs in captivity but mine is well over 2 years at this point. It is very healthy and I see no signs of it dying anytime soon. It doesn't seem to grow very fast though, even though its fed daily it still is only about 2 1/2" long, seems like it would be bigger than this by now but I have nothing to guage its growth against....GSP's are supposed to get about 6" long. I acclimated it over about 2 weeks without any problem but I've heard you can do it in less. He happily lives in my refugium and is the only fish that I have ever had that refuses to eat flake food.

[subsea]

I also kept a brackish native Gulf of Mexico bio-theme tank. While they were not native to GOM,the Scats and Puffers provded an exotic theme to a GOM bio-theme which at that time did not include decorative macro algae. Since I have too many irons in the fire, I will not take on this project. If any one is interested in this bio-theme tank, I think it could be done with a Jaubert plenumn in a 29G tall. I operated this configuation for years along side my 150G display tank. The 29G native biotheme generated more interest as people were surrised at the bidiversity in the Louisiana marshland.

Patrick

[JamesL]

AquaTek, RCA, and Aqua Dome all carry freshwater fish also. Might want to give one of them a call.