mollys and betta
- Thread starter neovente
- Start date
No. First off, Mollies get big, so they need 15+ gallons of water. Secondly, Mollies are brackish and Bettas are not. Thirdly, if you want multiple female Bettas, then you need a group of 4-6 for less aggression and chance of injury/death. Female Bettas may be more tolerant of other fish and females than males, but they are still mean. Hope this helps!! =)
Sorry Kiara, but I understand all mollies are not brackish and I have successfully kept bettas with mollies with no problem at all, but I do agree with the larger tank. When I started with female bettas I was unable to to find any source for the reason for number that people said to use (it varied) - I started with two and have had no problems at all. I am absolutely intrigued with how they have grown and how their colors have come out. They are in a tank with neons, serpaes, angels, platies and otos.
Some Mollies can live in FW, BW, and SW. Mollies like very hard and very high pH water, they do great in a marine tank. If you buy them in FW you take a week or two to get them to brackish (about 1.005), then the next week or two work on getting them to 1.010-1.015, then to 1.023-1.025 a week or two later. In about 30-45 days you can have them ready for full marine.
I knew they could go from fresh to brackish to marine, but if you acclimate them as Kerry says, you then would only be able to have brackish or marine fish in your community. Of course there is nothing wrong with that if it is your goal. IME it is the mollies you would have to watch that they aren't intimidating the betta. Mollies are pretty active fish. I really enjoy them both and the two silver ones in with the dark red betta are really striking.
I've transitioned mollies from pure fresh to full marine in the same day with no problems. It would take starting out in a small jar with the mollies in fresh water. I'd put the jar into into the bottom of a 5gallon bucket, and drip 1 drop of water (full marine water siphoned from one of my reefs) into the jar every 2-3 seconds. By the time the bucket was full, they were in full salt and went on to breed in the QT tank. 7 mollies - didn't pay attention to the male/female ratio back then - became over 50 in the month they stayed in QT. I never fed them once, as there was so much algae in the tank since the tank had direct sunlight. It was like an explosion of molly fry! Lots of rocks and dead coral pieces in the tank, so the fry found plenty of hiding places.
I want to put mollies in my 40G (breeder size) SW tank but, I have not yet. I think they would be ok with my marine fish as all of them are pretty mild tempered. 2 Blue-green chromis, 2 spotted cardinals, 3 clowns and a coral beauty which is mild tempered as well. I was thinking maybe the black or the reddish color breeds. The reason I have not convinced myself yet is because I am thinking the fry would be a great food source for my fish and coral. I like the idea of my fish having their natural predatory instinct to hunt but, then I think maybe its cruel to do this. Then on the other hand I breed co-pods, pods, and brine shrimp to feed them so why am I having such a hard time convincing myself that the Molly fry would be ok to???!!!! My conscious gets the best of me.
I do not believe its cruel, Kerry, its natures way of population control. It isn't as if there was any parents trying to protect offspring or grieving when one dies, either. I have, personally, been unable to convince myself that fish have the same emotions as most mammals. I think you are more right in having a natural source of food and activity for your other fish.
I was having a moral issue with myself I guess. The more I think about the living critters I have in my SW tank now that are just food for the other fish the more I think I want to get mollies to breed in my SW tank and use it as a source of natural food as I do with my live co-pods, pods, and brine shrimp. Even though my fish are tank raised they still have instinct to hunt food. I thought maybe getting one male and two females but, I have not pulled the trigger on this so I have not done any research yet. I know usually you want more females.