Mollies to new tank

Dec 5, 2011
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Walla Walla, Washington
#1
My friend has a 55g with 5 tetras, 2 reed fish, 2 angel fish, and 1 pleco. She wants to see if she can have a few of my baby mollies in her tank. How many mollies should I give her that wouldn't overstock the tank?
 

Feb 27, 2009
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#5
How do you know the 'breed' (do you mean 'species'?) of fish to look up? Tetra and pleco are very general fish names.

Erpetoichthys calabaricus will likely make snacks out of the mollies over time, being a meat eater that hunts at night.
 

Kiara1125

Superstar Fish
Jan 12, 2011
1,142
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Florida
#8
OC, everything in that tank besides the angels and pleco are going to get eaten by the reed fish. They grow up to 35" and I don't know if SlateSpiders friend realizes that. Does she??
 

Thyra

Superstar Fish
Jun 2, 2010
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Yelm, WA
#9
Kiara, I think you might mean centimeters and not inches. From what I read they get to be 14 - 15 inches and are very peaceful fish, although I can tell you right now, they wouldn't be to my liking peaceful or not, long or short. They can breath air and are likely to slither out of the tank and I am definitely not into anything that "slithers".
 

Feb 27, 2009
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#10
I had one that was 22" long when I traded it in to a LFS. It ate smaller fish all the time, from the time it was 6" or so. I never purchased the fish, it was hiding in some rockwork I had bought from a guy at a garage sale. I took the rocks from his tank, put them in a plastic bag and hours later, added them to a tank. Due to their ability to use the swim bladder as a primitive lung, it survived and came out in the QT tank. I didn't know anything about it but it was very friendly and would come up and eat softened pellet food from my palm.

They can and do eat small fish. If it may fit in their mouth, they will try. As this video shows, they do not just eat a fish that has died. The fish the ropefish is eating is clearly alive.

African Rope Fish eating fish - YouTube
 

Kiara1125

Superstar Fish
Jan 12, 2011
1,142
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Florida
#12
Thyra, I meant inches. I never measure in centimeters.

OC, I just answered a question. Right now, it's her friend's tank, but (not to sound cruel) SlateSpider NEEDS to get rid of fry, whether they make it or not. No offense Allison.
 

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Thyra

Superstar Fish
Jun 2, 2010
1,891
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Yelm, WA
#14
Ok, I had looked up their profile and because it was in inches I though it knew what it was talking about. In my business I had to be aware of both inches and centimeters, Fahrenheit and centigrade. There are also a lot of forum members that do use centimeters and centigrade. It would certainly be easier if we switched (the whole U.S.A)- maybe not at first but it wouldn't take long.
 

Dec 5, 2011
268
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0
Walla Walla, Washington
#15
Thyra, I meant inches. I never measure in centimeters.

OC, I just answered a question. Right now, it's her friend's tank, but (not to sound cruel) SlateSpider NEEDS to get rid of fry, whether they make it or not. No offense Allison.
True, I do really need to get rid of some fry. I have 35 total fry right now, and I already have a home for some.
Oh and speaking of the new home, I need you guys' opinion on one other thing.

My neighbor has a 15g tank with a really good filter, a heater, and air bubbles going up the back wall. They have a small pleco, and 2 neon tetras (started out as 10 neons, but I don't know the whole story). They want some of my fry, too. How many should I give them?
 

Kiara1125

Superstar Fish
Jan 12, 2011
1,142
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0
Florida
#16
What type if pleco?? I'd say 3-5 mollies.

OC, I'm sorry. It's just, I don't want to get into her friend's business. They had to have bought the reed fish knowing (or at least finding out) how big they get. If they want mollies, I say let em have it.

Just found out that my lfs carries Rope fish. Eep. They're scary looking!!
 

Thyra

Superstar Fish
Jun 2, 2010
1,891
0
0
Yelm, WA
#17
Its my understanding from a previous discussion that the amount of filtration does not really increase the capacity of a tank. Its like putting more people in a closet - there isn't any more room even if you add more oxygen. IMO no more than 3 mollies in a 15 g tank and be sure they are all the same sex and don't add any other fish - which you will have no control over anyway. Mollies are very active fish given the room. And I am also learning that saying "small pleco" means nothing - there are apparently a lot of different species called pleco.
 

Feb 27, 2009
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#19
The 'pleco' is a plecostamus. It ia only a few inches long.
There is a huge range of sizes of fish called 'pleco.' Some only get 3-4 inches long, some get 2-3 feet long. It is like saying you have a 'dog' and want to get the right sized kennel for it. A tea-cup Chihuahua is quite a bit different in size when compared to a Mastiff.

Your friend's 5 tetras, could be small or huge fish. Neon Tetras and Silver Dollar Tetras, both tetra, but a huge difference in size.
 

Feb 27, 2009
4,395
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#20
OC, I'm sorry. It's just, I don't want to get into her friend's business. They had to have bought the reed fish knowing (or at least finding out) how big they get. If they want mollies, I say let em have it.
I have kept huge carnivorous fish in the past, and they ate the occasional smaller fish in the tank. I never put the smaller fish in their tank on purpose, not because its 'cruel' for a big fish to eat a little fish, but because is very poor nutrition for the larger fish.

In all cases, the larger meat-eating fish grew faster than their smaller tankmakes and eventually picked off a few. When I saw what was going on, I moved the smaller fish to another tank.

You say that you don't want to get into SlateSpider's friend's business? But you answered the question of 'how many mollies will not overstock the tank,' so you are already in the friend's 'business.' SlateSpider didn't ask 'How many baby mollies should my friend feed her tank's fish?' No one that feeds live foods to carnivorous fish is worried about 'overstocking' the tank with the fish intended for food. You clearly did not originally think the mollies were being offered as food to the tank when you asked to make sure they were compatible first.

It seems to me that you answered 'about 5' without really knowing much about rope fish, or the size of the still unknown tetras and pleco. Without knowing the answers about the tetras and pleco, no way to answer how many would overstock the tank.