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We used to call them black mollies.
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Mollies don't look like mollies anymore.
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Mollies come in many colors and shapes these days. This is one of
the red strains.
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And mollies all get mixed together from time to time, yielding some nice
looking fish.
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Long ago, we used to call these liberty mollies. You can see where
the colors came from.
Original Origins: We’ve seen
large schools of the smaller black and marbled mollies in the river
flowing along San Antonio’s famous River Walk.
They seem to thrive on a diet of popcorn and potato chips.
We’ve seined the larger, high-finned green mollies from ditches in
Alabama (where they use them as good-looking bait).
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Yes, mollies still come in the
original black. There's just lots of other types out there.
New Origins: Most of the
smaller-finned molly varieties come from fish farms in Florida.
Most of the fancier-finned varieties come from
Singapore and other far eastern fish farms.
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Gold dust lyre tail mollies catch your eye.
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Some of the tails go to extremes.
Water Conditions:
Mollies prefer a pH above neutral.
Our Des Moines water works great.
Mollies also like salt in their water – one teaspoon per gallon minimum.
They can handle many times that much salt.
Some species will even adapt to straight sea water.
Keep their water around 80o although they can stand it
cooler or hotter.
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Are balloon body mollies an improvement?
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Black mollies are an attractive and economical fish. Always add
salt.
Appeal: Anyone spotting
the jet-black smaller mollies can’t resist their velvety beauty.
Those who like fancier varieties admire the finnage on the
high-finned varieties.
Mollies now come in black, marble, silver, Dalmatian, chocolate, gold,
red, green and blends of these colors. Their
fin types now include the high dorsals, lyre-tails, and veiltails.
And do not forget the balloon bodies.
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You can find several colors in the sailfin vellifera mollies.
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Sailfin velliferas grow larger than most mollies.
Size: The smaller
finned molly varieties top out at two inches.
Some of the fancier-finned varieties approach four inches.
Jumpers: All livebearers like
to jump. We recommend
a good tank cover. Mollies
especially like jumping from their tanks after water changes.
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Young mollies mix well with young African cichlids. They like the
same water conditions.
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No Goldfish: Oddly
enough, mollies don’t mix well with goldfish.
Mollies constantly pick, pick, pick at goldfishes -- apparently
snacking on their slime coating.
They will also pick at gouramis.
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Lyre tail albino mollies make a nice contrast with the original black
mollies.
Foods: Mollies
will eagerly eat whatever you feed them.
They need foods with algae in them.
They also constantly snack on the algae growing on your tank’s
surfaces. Mollies also love live
foods and frozen foods.
Mollies respond well to those worm flakes that increase their litter
sizes.
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Another one of the red molly strains
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Usually you can tell when mollies get pregnant. She needs her own
tank.
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Fresh out of the bag, these mollies gave birth in transit.
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Female mollies can give birth to numerous fry.
Saving Fry: Molly fry taste good to other fishes, although they
start life much larger than most livebearers.
If you want baby mollies, you need to keep your eyes open.
Healthy females release live fry every eight weeks.
Give your expectant mom a well-planted 10-gallon tank so the
babies can hide. Mollies often give birth prematurely, if you move them
less than two weeks before their regular due date.
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These mollies gave birth in their shipping bag. Luckily, their fry
were viable.
Protective Plants: Water
sprite makes the ideal plant in a molly tank.
It grows well with salt in the water.
It also grows thousands of tiny rootlets for the babies to hide
within and provides excellent areas for tiny edible protozoans to thrive
upon.
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New mollies show up almost every year.
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Quite a ways from the original black mollies.
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Albino gold sailfin mollies look great.
Fry Foods: Baby mollies
eagerly eat powdered dry food.
They also love newly hatched
shrimps
– even the frozen ones.
Microworms
rate high on their tastometer. All baby fishes grow best when
fed several times a day (up to a maximum of five times).
Add snails to clean up the excess.
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Female gold sailfin molly at top. Male below. Sailfins come in
many colors.
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At last, the original Yucatan mollies. They still exist.
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Mollies have come a long way.
Filtration:
Mollies like clean water, but avoid those baby-eating power filters when
raising babies.
Use an under gravel or sponge filter.
LA.
© 1999,
© 2003,
© 2004
LA Productions
3600 Sixth Avenue
Corner of Sixth & Euclid Avenues
Des Moines, IA 50313
515 283-0300
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