Can mollies be kept in a community tank

[OscarCichlid]

I have had mollies in the past but i could not keep them alive. They were in my 29 and my 10. Both have aquarium salt in them but very little. The water Quality was always perfect and the temp was good to. No matter what i did the aklways got fungus. Everytime i cured it, it just came back within a week. After having the mollies for a bout 4 moths they were all dead. Why?

 

[cassandra]

i heard that it's ok to put salt in water with mollies but i would ask someone at the fish store to know for sure, maybe that's your problem, or even if you getting fish from a bad store try asking a specialist to see what they think at a fish store maybe they would know why

 

[OscarCichlid]

i did ask someone. he said that they would be fine in full fresh or full salt or brackish. he is usually right but has been wrong before and with my mollies dieing like this i dont know what to do.

 

[cassandra]

i don't know sorry

 

[OscarCichlid]

its ok thanks for trying.... any input is good input when i have no idea whats going on...

 

[ruffmeister]

i have had mollies in my community tank for ages and they are fine with no salt in the water

 

[Sinuhe]

It also depends on if the Mollies were raised with salt in the water or not. If they've always been in 100% water, there is no need for salt. But if they've been raised with salt, and maybe in hard water, they may not handle saltless, soft water that well. If you can find Mollies that have been raised locally in similar water as yours, you might have better luck with keeping them

 

[MAM]

here's the deal. originally mollies were kept as brackish fish. nowadays, most places sell them as freshwater. they are born and raised fw. if the store kept them fw you should too, if they were kept bw, then you should do this. reason being is that they don't always acclimate well. they may do fine with the change for a number of months but will then suddenly just die. now, they are a fish that can tolerate salt if needed to treat an illness, but if they were sold as fw, thats how they should be kept. most places only sell the fw these days so they can be community fish, since bw tanks are not real popular and are limited in what can be kept together.

 

[guppymonkey]

Sometimes mollies get fungus if they don't have enough salt. But it depends on how they were raised as other people have pointed out. Most pet stores don't add salt to their tanks unless they also sell salt water fish. In a community tank its best to check the other fishes needs as well. Most scaleless catfish can't tolerate ANY salt and will die if its added. Some other fish are also not tolerant of salt. So if you want brackish fish maybe a separate tank would be best if they need a good amount of salt.

 

[OscarCichlid]

i am honestly not sure if the tanks at my LFS have any salt in them. They change them around all the time. They have a few tanks with mollies in them. One is full salt (a HUGDE marine tank) one i think is brackish ( in it are mollies and scats). and the other i assume are fresh (they are kept with the pl*cos and corys) << thats the tank i bought out of.

 

[MAM]

well, scats are bw as far as i know (often sold as tankmates for bw puffers). so if you go the mollies from that tank, keep them bw, but not full on salt water. if they were in the community tank with the plecs and cories (both of which cna't handle salt by the way), then go ahead and keep them in a regular fw community tank.