Guppies in a refugium

[jamesdong009]

I keep mollies in my qt and frag tank. They do well with the flow and produce babies like crazy. I would honestly say I wouldn't set up another quarantine tank or frag tank without them. All they do is pick at algae and possible pests that the are on the plugs.

My refugium has lower flow and water volume, so I was thinking guppies might be a good option for filamentous algae since it's lit 24 hours a day.

Has anyone tried keeping them in a complete saltwater enviroment?

 

[Slombardi]

No idea on guppies, but I have been considering some mollies for my tank. In your experience does it matter what type of Molly? Do you have them in your dt?

 

[gobyvin]

Mollies, particularly the black Molly, do very well in full salt.

 

[jamesdong009]

I was in the hospital for a bit and pretty much starting over, but I would consider adding them in a DT.

I have balloons, blacks, and salifins in my tanks. They all do well. The balloons surprised me on how well they handled the flow. My QT is a 33 long with 4 MP10s and they all swim happily. They're fed pretty well so I'm sure that helps with endurance.

The empty frag tank has mollies with no obstruction so tons of flow. They seem to like though.

 

[Slombardi]

I was in the hospital for a bit and pretty much starting over, but I would consider adding them in a DT.

I have balloons, blacks, and salifins in my tanks. They all do well. The balloons surprised me on how well they handled the flow. My QT is a 33 long with 4 MP10s and they all swim happily. They're fed pretty well so I'm sure that helps with endurance.

The empty frag tank has mollies with no obstruction so tons of flow. They seem to like though.

Thanks! I think I am going to try them and see how it goes.

 

[jamesdong009]

I took my time with acclimating this time around. I spent about 12 hours and added roughly half a cup each hour. Just put them in a shallow tank with original water, an air stone, and heater. They've been eating and breeding for a few months, so I call it a success.

 

[PSU4ME]

Black mollies are great for a QT tank. As you said, they pick all day and are a wonderful disease indicator. I think they be fine in a refugium

 

[afboundguy]

I would be concerned about adding them to a refugium that is lit 24/7 as I would think the stress of never having a dark time for R&R would ultimately cause them to perish...

 

[PSU4ME]

^^ true, I run fuge opposite light cycle though so it’s got some dark time

 

[Chris L]

I used to put them in my salt tanks at the old store to keep algae in check lol. Very hardy fish and acclimate easily

 

[jamesdong009]

I would be concerned about adding them to a refugium that is lit 24/7 as I would think the stress of never having a dark time for R&R would ultimately cause them to perish...

Fish have eyelids don't they. JK

 

[Joker]

I'm going to go buy me some tomorrow. I have to get some kind of clean up crew my mel wrasse wont eat lol. I have tried large clean up crew and he still ate them. I put a 2 inch turbo in and it was eaten in a few min. The turbo was a little more than half his size lol.

 

[PSU4ME]

One word of caution, they are very very susceptible to disease so if you don’t have a “clean” tank, they will suffer. They are very good to use with delicate fish you don’t want to treat with meds as you can buddy them up and let the Molly tell you if the fish has something. I plan to use them on mandarins and if I can ever find chaoti wrasses

 

[Joker]

Her are my 7 I got. 2hrs into the acclimation and all looking very strong and happy. I put a heater in after I took this pic. I definitely dont need all 7 but i got more just incase of die off.

 

[Joker]

So after a very long night of acclimating that ended at 3am here are the results. All fish look happy even ate food and went into the tank swimming and picking at the rocks. Wake up to 6 of them dead and 1 swimming happily. That stinks I must of gotten a bad batch of mollies

 

[DJTank]

Question for learning.. wouldn't a Molly need to be slowly acclimated to salt water a bit at a time? I would assume it would be like ph or anything else in the water. Many fish can adjust to different parameters but over time. If i raise 1 parameter dramatically and quickly they won't adjust well.

 

[DJTank]

Joker, thanks for sharing my daughter loves mollies and I want to do this too so I am learning from your experience. Keep trying bud!

 

[Joker]

Question for learning.. wouldn't a Molly need to be slowly acclimated to salt water a bit at a time? I would assume it would be like ph or anything else in the water. Many fish can adjust to different parameters but over time. If i raise 1 parameter dramatically and quickly they won't adjust well.

That's why you do a drip for between 6-12 hours. I did it for 12hrs and still came up with this. There is alot of people out there that have way better success with just dumping them right into the tank and not losing one

 

[coralfishreef]

Reefbuilders has a modified drip method that he shows in this video.

 

[Cpage101]

That's why you do a drip for between 6-12 hours. I did it for 12hrs and still came up with this. There is alot of people out there that have way better success with just dumping them right into the tank and not losing one

IMO 12 hrs may have been to long especially dripping what was the SG before adding? did you confirm they were in 1.026 SG water?