tank mates??

[cory]

so i am thinking about putting my mollies and guppies together. are they good together? will they fight or any thing? i do not put salt in the molly tank. i have about 20 mollies in a 29g. and 7 guppies in a 33g tank. i want to use the 33 for a bigger fish. should i get a 10 g for the guppies?

 

[catfishmike]

hey cory get rid of some of those mollies.as it stands 20 mollies in a 29gal.is way overstocked.of all the live bearing fish mollies are prehaps the most greedy hungry messy fish.they also grow pretty big compared to guppys,platys and swordtails.that and the given fact that they reproduce very quckly you will soon have a large problem on your hands.you personaly should add salt to your mollie tank,for a few reasons 1 mollies are often found in brackish enviroments,2 mollies have less health problems when kept in a salted enviroment,presumably because they use the extra minerals and calcium to develop bone and fin.3 mollies osmoregulatory systems are more like a saltwater fish than a freshwater fish.i'm not pulling this out of my head either.i read all of this in the dec/jan issue of tfh i can't remember which one exactly.if you choose to get some salt use a good marine salt not aquarium salt.and get a hydrometer too.i can't tell you what the reading should be off hand so we'll get to that later.i don't personal suggest putting guppys with mollies because they will outcompete the guppys for food so you will be overfeeding all the time to make sure the guppys are eating.i hope this helps.if you have more qusetions just ask.

 

[cory]

the mollies i have get to be about 2 1/2 in long. they are the smaller mollies. my mollies do eat alot but the fey grow fast because they eat so much.i have four adults in the tank. they are not very big.

 

[catfishmike]

you have the small kind huh?i have yet to figure out what the difference is some are small and some great big ole things.i dig the big sailfin mollies.i guess if there all still small your ok

 

[cory]

ya i have lyretail mollies they are smaller then other mollies.my adults are not much bigger then my guppies...

 

[Angelfish]

You must have huge guppies! Just kidding =) I actually dont know how big lyretail mollies get, mines a sailfin.
I wouldnt risk putting mollies in with guppies because mollies can be agressive with smaller fish, and when I had three the males were agressive with oneanother. If you only have seven guppies I'd go with the idea you have about putting them in a 10 gal. of their own, you could even breed them in there!
Good Luck.