mollies fish

Contents

Description of the mollies fish
Types and breeds of mollies fish
Compatibility of mollies fish with other fish
Keeping mollies in an aquarium
Mollie fish care
Reproduction of mollies fish at home
Popular questions and answers

If you are just taking your first steps in the aquarium business, then the unpretentious and extremely cute mollies fish is what you need. Let’s study it better

Name	Mollies (Poecilia sphenops)
family	Pecilian
Origin	South America
Food	Omnivorous
Reproduction	Viviparous
Length	Females – up to 10 cm
Content Difficulty	For beginners

Description of the mollies fish

Mollies (Poecilia sphenops) are one of the most popular aquarium fish from the Poecilia family. And the point is not even in their appearance (in terms of brightness and multicolor they cannot be compared with the same guppies), but in their incredible vitality and unpretentiousness. If you have a container of water and an aeration compressor, you can safely settle in your mollies.

These fish trace their ancestry from South American ancestors who lived not only in the fresh rivers of the New World, but also in brackish deltas, where sea water was mixed with river water. To this day, some types of mollies, such as speckled mollies, need a little salting of aquarium water.

Mollies are small fish of an elongated shape and a wide variety of colors. In the wild, they have a camouflage greenish-silver color that makes them invisible in thickets of aquatic plants. The caudal fin is very beautiful in mollies. It can have rather long processes at both ends, and their close relatives of the swordsmen can even stretch into a long “sword”.

Females are much larger than males, so if you want to get offspring from your fish, there will be no problems with selecting a pair. The head of mollies has a pointed shape, the mouth is oriented upward, which allows them to easily collect food from the surface of the water. Eyes on a narrow muzzle seem very large

Types and breeds of mollies fish

In nature, there are 4 types of mollies:

Freestyle mollies (Poecilia salvatoris). These fish are silver in color with bright fins. One of the most enduring species.

Mollies are small-finned, or sphenops (Poecilia sphenops). Thanks to its matte black color, it has gained great popularity among aquarists. She has other color variations, but still black without shine is the most valuable and, perhaps, known today.

Panus mollies, or velifera (Poecilia velifera). The high dorsal fin of the males of these fish is very similar to a sail. Perhaps this is one of the most beautiful types of mollies – large and golden in color. This fish loves lightly salted water and large spaces.

Mollies latipina (Poecilia latipina). Another beautiful species with long appendages on the caudal fin. The coloring combines pale blue, gray and golden colors.

Selected (artificially bred) forms include: golden and silver mollies, as well as interesting fish called “balloon” (the body has a more rounded shape with a pronounced belly), speckled, lyre-tailed and other mollies

Compatibility of mollies fish with other fish

Perhaps this is one of the most accommodating fish. They themselves never bully their neighbors in the aquarium and get along peacefully with everyone. But, of course, you should not settle them with larger and even more aggressive roommates – at best, they will take food from mollies, and at worst, attack them, and sometimes bite their beautiful fins. This is especially true for some types of barbs, as well as blue Cuban crayfish.

But such peaceful fish as guppies, neons, catfish and swordtails are quite suitable for them.

Keeping mollies in an aquarium

As has been said more than once, the maintenance of mollies does not cause trouble for their owner. So, if you are not going to devote your whole life to aquarism, but want to settle beautiful fish in your home, mollies are what you need.

It’s worth starting a group of several fish at once (preferably about 10), because mollies are a schooling fish that feels much more comfortable in a big company

Mollie fish care

You will need a minimum set of actions: feeding 2 times a day, installing an aerator (it is better if it is combined with a filter) and changing 1/3 of the water weekly. As for landscaping and soil, everything is up to you. From the point of view of ease of cleaning, it is better to put medium-sized pebbles on the bottom – they will definitely not be drawn into a hose or pump, and you should choose live plants, because they will not only decorate the aquarium, but can also serve as an additional source of food for your fish (4). However, if you take artificial ones, the fish will not present any claims to you.

Do not place the aquarium in direct sunlight or, conversely, in a dark place. Lighting should be good (fish like long daylight hours), but not dazzling.

Mollies do well in salted water at a ratio of about 2 g per liter (sea salt is better), but in this case you should not settle other fish with them.

Aquarium volume

The ideal volume of the aquarium for a flock of mollies is 50 – 70 liters. However, this does not mean that they will die in a larger or even smaller volume. Mollies very easily adapt to the conditions of detention, therefore they survive in small aquariums (only in this case you should not put a large group there). But still remember that the larger the living space of your fish, the happier they are.

Water temperature

Mollies are among those fish that can easily endure all the hardships of survival in a city apartment with its poor or too good heating and cold in the off-season. Therefore, do not worry if the water in the aquarium is somewhat cold – this will not kill the fish. Of course, in cool water they will become more lethargic, but as soon as the apartment warms up, the mollies will revive again.

The optimum temperature for their comfortable existence is 25 ° C.

What to feed

Mollies are omnivorous fish, but it is desirable that plant food be present in their diet. It can be both aquarium plants and additives to ready-made feeds.

Fish can feed on tiny crustaceans like brine shrimp and daphnia, but in this case they will make up for the lack of fiber by scraping green deposits from the walls of the aquarium. However, it is best to feed them in the form of dry flakes, because the structure of the mouth of mollies is ideal for collecting food from the surface of the water. In addition, ready-made feeds usually contain everything necessary for the full development of fish. If you have a colored variety of mollies, it is better for them to choose a food with a color enhancing effect.

Reproduction of mollies fish at home

Mollies are one of the easiest fish to breed. They are viviparous and breed fully viable fry, which immediately begin to swim and look for food.

True, it sometimes happens that adult fish, especially other species, can begin to hunt for fry, so if you want the offspring to survive, you should either put the pregnant female in a separate aquarium, or fill the aquarium with aquatic plants in which small fish can hide .

Otherwise, breeding mollies will not give you any worries – just one fine day you will see tiny fish babies swimming in the aquarium.