What is the best way to care for mollies?

Question

I have a 50 gal tank and want to stock it with mollies. I have nothing in the tank as of now. I am not new to this so I know about how to cycle the tank and all. I just have not had mollies before. I hear they are a little different to care for. Any suggestions? Also, what type of bottom feeders will go with them? How about Mystery Snails?

Please don't waste your time and energy if you don't know.

Answer 1

Mollies are really easy to care for. But they breed like rabbits, just fyi. It's fun at first, but eventually you have more than you can even give away. If you don't want babies, get females only or males only. If you want babies (or don't care if they have babies), then get at least 3 females for each male; males are annoying pests so you want to dillute the flirting.
In a 50 gallon tank you could probably have about 20 mollies, if that's pretty much all your have. And a school of corydoras catfish and maybe a bristle-nose pleco. And yep, mystery snails are fine too.

They will eat regular flakes, pellets, and will also nibble on algae wafers.

Mollies are more or less brackish fish, they enjoy salt in their water. About 1 rounded tbsp per 5 gallons, disolved first in dechlor water.
The temp should be about 77-78F, and pH / hardness doesn't really matter, mollies are highly adaptable, so as long as it isn't in the extremes.

If you want to keep some of the babies, I suggest you forego the breeding net idea. It's a lot of work and stress. Rather, just put lots of plants in the tank for the babies to hide in. Many will get eaten, but some won't.

Answer 2

Let your aquarium sit for a few days before you add fish so it will filter the water and ready it for the fish. Buy a few live plants for the aquarium and put them down in the gravel so they will take root. The plants will put oxygen into the water and clean the gravel. Add a pleco and a couple snails to the aquarium to help clean it. Add a shrimp to it to help clean it and decorate it. Make sure the temp stays around 76-80 degrees. An aquarium heater will make sure the water stays warm enough. A mystery snail will be a good bottom feeder. I have two black mystery snails.
I have a 50 gallon tank with twelve black mollies in it and they are all very healthy. Also, be sure and seperate the fry from the adult fish.
I don't know why some people think that black mollies can't be in the same tank, because that not true. All of my mollies are black and they get along fine, they even mate together.
A fresh water clam is a good addition to the aquarium too.

Answer 3

The mollies I had seemed to thrive with no special care. Just fed them every day and kept my tank cleaned..and before I knew it, I had a LOT of little mollies all over the place. Catfish are nice, mellow bottom-feeders, and plecost...plecosti...the fish I can't spell (plecostimus??) leaves everybody alone. I never put snails in my tank, cos you seem to start with one...then you get fifty. Oh - and the fish seemed to really like those "banana" plants.

Answer 4

Mollies tend to like a bit of salt in their water. Also, research the type you get as some require brackish conditions. Bottom feeders are really up to you. Mollies are not aggressive fish, so as long as the bottom feeders you choose are not aggressive, things should be ok. Just make sure that all species can handle the salt you'll add to the water.

Also, it is best to keep one male to 2 or 3 females. If you don't want babies, all females is ok, but all males will only cause stress as the males constantly try to show off.

If you decide to breed them, a breeding net is best, but you can also provide bushy plants for the fry to hide in and let nature take its course. Some will of course get eaten, but some will also survive without causing a population boom. If breeding is what you want, initially understock your tank to make up for the babies that will be inevitable, unless you have other tanks to raise them in.

Answer 5

Otos have a tendancy to go pretty well with Mollies,so long as they aren't ballon bellies. With a 50 gallon? Holy crap that's a lot of mollies.

Mollies and shrimp practically -love- each other. Mystery snails make... well. ...a lot of mess. I don't really recommend them as bottom feeding scavengers.

A good quality flake for tropicals would be best for a molly. Understock your tank if you can and plant it up fairly heavily-give it a month and you'll have enough babies to overstock your tank,most likely. Mollies are as bad as guppies about breeding like crazy.

As an off note,this is purely an experience-based answer. It seems dalmation mollies are tending to be -extremely- dominant if they're the only dalmation in the tank. I have no idea which variety you want,but the male I had killed the platys that were in with him,ate guppies and ended up killing off his mates. I've heard a few similiar things,too,with dalmation molly males. Just a heads up-if you get a few of them,I'd watch the rest of the population. =)

Answer 6

Mollies are one of the easiest fish to have and raise but dirty fish. I would suggest no more than 15 (since they rarely grow larger than 3") total. Also Mollies are a fresh, brackish and salt water fish. DO NOT forget to add aquarium salt to their water. With these fish, you can't mess up, since the salt levels don't matter.

I would also suggest if you don't have an undergravel filter, install one for cleanup


When purchasing your mollies, try to get 2 males only and all the rest females. If you do this, your tank is going to expload with babies. As they grow, you can always sell them back to your pet store for credit on supplies. Since Mollies are live bearing fish, chances are with this many females, you could have littleones within a week.

As far as mistery snails these are often mistakenly sold under the name of Apple snails. These snails have their little ones in places you don't want....on your hood (each in excess of over 100). If not controlled, these snails can breed out of control rapidly. Since both snails are closley related realize one thing, snails will eat any food left at the bottom of the tank. They will also eat algae, but don't expect them to clean the glass, since they leave trails. They are interesting to watch in the tank.
They will make good companions since they both like Hard water.

Remember, mollies by nature are algae eaters. However, when setting them on a diet of algae, It is important to NOT FEED THEM. If they are fed, they will not be quite so eager to consume algae. When they are hungry, they are eager consumers of most algae types seen during the break-in period.

If you feed them much less often, they alone will keep the "good" algae under control. No need for an algae eater. Go with the snails, but watch they don't get out of control.

Water Temperature 25 C
PH 7.1 - 8.0
GH 8 - 10
NH3 less than 2.0
Light Setting 50/50
Feedings every 8 hours

Answer 7

http://www.fishdeals.com/livebearers/mollies/ Hi this site is pretty good. Fresh water and no ammonia or nitrates help. This fish is passive and if aggressive does no harm. They can adapt to salt water tanks. Personally I would stay with fresh. bottom feeders are fine. They have fry every 28 days and can store sperm after mating for later use.Have a great day.

Answer 8

k from my experience with mollies we had about a 50 gal tank fed them fish food everyday get the lil rocks that go on the bottom they r not very much different than anyother fish except the fact that they fight and get pregnant alot every day i would wake up one or two would be dead floating on the top of the water so we only got about 10 of them and ended up with about 50 in the end

Answer 9

Make sure you research your specific variety. Some varieties get 3" and some get to 8". You certainly don't want to overstock and put 20 8" mollies in that tank.

Answer 10

ya dont want a snail unless youre ready for over a million of em..been there tried that...feed the mollies and keep the tank clean...and get some plec.'s and maybe those lil catfish things.. those rock..good luck