Cycling A Marine Fish With Black Mollies?

[lukkylady]

i went to a lfs to get some CUC for my tank

i did a large water change yesterday, and tested the water and everything had remained stable since last week

but my lfs advised me to put in 2 black mollies for a few weeks instead of CUC, and said if they survived a few weeks, to bring them back

and then put in CUC. is it ok?

black mollies are freshwater? when we asked, we were told that they would be ok.

any ideas/comments?

thanks

 

[KeTeL1]

Not bad, ive done the same with the mollies. they turned out pretty good. my friend was bugging though, he wuldnt believe that they'd live in salt water.

 

[Musho3210]

Not bad, ive done the same with the mollies. they turned out pretty good. my friend was bugging though, he wuldnt believe that they'd live in salt water.

ehh i wouldnt listen to them....

yes, they live in saltwater

no, it is not cruel to them if you take a long time to acclimate them

yes it is very cruel to use a cheap living animal as a "tester" before you add the more expensive and permanent things in

yes it is very cruel to use live animals for cycle

yes it is a bad idea

no i would not do it

yes it is the 21st century and there are new and more humane ways to keeping fish and live animals as a whole, yet some stores cant let go of their money making past.

 

[andywg]

no, it is not cruel to them if you take a long time to acclimate them

You don't a great deal. Many mollies can be dropped from fresh to saltwater, and with an hour of acclimatisation there will be no problems.

yes it is very cruel to use a cheap living animal as a "tester" before you add the more expensive and permanent things in

But should we not become proficient in how to keep a tank with animals that are not endangered or taken from the wild before moving on to things which are somewhat less well placed for survival?

yes it is very cruel to use live animals for cycle

When curing live rock we are using dead life to cycle the tank. It is somewhat subjective to say that having dying fish is bad, but other dying organisms is fine, n'est ce pas?

 

[Musho3210]

no, it is not cruel to them if you take a long time to acclimate them

You don't a great deal. Many mollies can be dropped from fresh to saltwater, and with an hour of acclimatisation there will be no problems.

yes it is very cruel to use a cheap living animal as a "tester" before you add the more expensive and permanent things in

But should we not become proficient in how to keep a tank with animals that are not endangered or taken from the wild before moving on to things which are somewhat less well placed for survival?

yes it is very cruel to use live animals for cycle

When curing live rock we are using dead life to cycle the tank. It is somewhat subjective to say that having dying fish is bad, but other dying organisms is fine, n'est ce pas?

the dead organism is already dead, buying a fish in the intention of not letting it live, and not caring, is bad IMO. Lots of people use the shrimp rotting method, is that a bad method because you are using a dead shrimp, yes and no i guess. Its down to the person.

endangered, expensive, big, small, nice, ugly, doesnt matter. It is a living thing that you decide not to care for.

Oh and i dont know what you mean by dead life... zombies?

JMO/personal morals/ethics anyway, you can agree with it, or not, i wont care anymore....

 

[Lynden]

JMO/personal morals/ethics anyway, you can agree with it, or not, i wont care anymore....

Musho will that be your answer every time someone challenges you?

Cycling wth mollies, after adding live rock, will not cause any measurable harm to the mollie. In fact it is more than likely helpful simply for them to be added to SW; mollies kept in FW are more often than not less healthy than those kept in SW.

Furthermore, in adding any live rock, there will be some dieoff, therefore death is largely unavoidable. If you don't like it, flush your tank and join PETA (because according to PETA, flushing the fish is better than the best care they could possibly receive in captivity).

 

[Musho3210]

yes that will be my answer any time someone asks me a moral or ethics question, as im sure you would say too.

yes i will agree with you that it is better to keep mollies in brackish/saltwater after the initial cycle. it is probably my miss-reading since the poster wasnt really talking about using it to cycle. But i dont think its a good thing to take back a live animal after it has been used to test your water. If your getting it, be committed.

almost forgot to add, if you dont agree with commitment and think there is no such thing, it is your opinion, and i shouldnt argue with that.

 

[Lynden]

Fair enough...

 

[n3ont3tra]

Musho, no offense but I think your just digging your own grave here....

Anyway
I'm just wondering, why do mollies seem to live through a cycle better in saltwater in freshwater? I've never read about saltwater mollies dieing from a cycle. But in freshwater, they die all the time. Is it just because mollies generally do better in SW tanks than most people's FW?

 

[SkiFletch]

Hummm, well lets sum up the facts here before we go far enough overboard that this thread needs to be closed...

-Mollies can most certainly live in saltwater.
-Some care certainly should be taken with acclimating them, yet they are hardy fish.
-Any aquarist should certainly strive to do all they can for any/all animals in their care.
-Purchasing an affordable fish to "test" the waters of an aquarium certainly does not show commitment to caring for that animal longterm; yet if many precautions for pre-cycling the tank are taken and no known harm will come to it, one should not be worried about the "ethics" of doing so.

One last personal thought... Good luck catching any fish used to "test" a tank with liverock. Be they Mollies, Damsels, Chromis, or something else, they will be exceptionally good hiders in the rock and will be a royal PITA to catch and return to the LFS. I never reccomend this method for keeping fish as there are ways to cycle a tank without fish until you're ready to purchase fish that you actually do wish to care for.



Now, everyone please let's stay away from the gray areas of argument and return to some civility

 

[5teady_2012]

Hummm, well lets sum up the facts here before we go far enough overboard that this thread needs to be closed...

-Mollies can most certainly live in saltwater.
-Some care certainly should be taken with acclimating them, yet they are hardy fish.
-Any aquarist should certainly strive to do all they can for any/all animals in their care.
-Purchasing an affordable fish to "test" the waters of an aquarium certainly does not show commitment to caring for that animal longterm; yet if many precautions for pre-cycling the tank are taken and no known harm will come to it, one should not be worried about the "ethics" of doing so.

One last personal thought... Good luck catching any fish used to "test" a tank with liverock. Be they Mollies, Damsels, Chromis, or something else, they will be exceptionally good hiders in the rock and will be a royal PITA to catch and return to the LFS. I never reccomend this method for keeping fish as there are ways to cycle a tank without fish until you're ready to purchase fish that you actually do wish to care for.



Now, everyone please let's stay away from the gray areas of argument and return to some civility

Clap Clap Clap

 

[lukkylady]

oops have i opened a can of worms

i did buy the two mollies and bring them home,

the lfs did sell them intended to make sure my tank was cycled and ready for marine fish, altho i had already told them that i dont plan on putting fish in until after may as i will be away for 2 weeks

i actually went into the lfs for some CUC to start on the algae etc in the tank

but they didnt have much to pick from, so we left with the 2 mollies

however, i decided against putting them in my SW tank, as i dont want to put in fish, then wreck the tank trying to catch them, and was also worried about them dying as well

i personally dont approve of cycling/testing a tank this way, but did allow the lfs to talk me into it, as i am new to marine fish keeping

so the mollies are in my FW tank, and doing fine

so thanks for all replies/advice and thread can be closed now!