I was a proud papa!! Mama molly finally had babies!!

[Seansea]

After about 6 months in the tank my mollys made babys. She had 5 basically right in front of me sitting on the power head. Unfortunatly the hawk fish ate most of em. Saw him hit 2 right in front of me.

Has anyone ever had mollys go to adulthood in a reef tank. I would think it near impossible with big eater, overflows and powerheads that this can happen. Im good with them basically being food but just curious.

 

[tzabor10]

Adorable

 

[BigAl07]

I believe the best chance for long-term survival is if they can get down through the OverFlow into the sump to live until they get some size to them before the "predators" get to snack on them. They are a good meal though even though we don't like to think of that.

Jake over at ReefBuilders used to talk about finding many molly babies in his sump quite often.

 

[killer2001]

Babies typically won't make it if there are any predators and the flow is too high. Adults do fine though and will occupy top half of the tank.

 

[Seansea]

Ive had afult mollys in my tank for about 8 months. They are great. Just had babys for first time tho. Looks like mamas preggo again already. Hawkfish will be happy.

 

[kiwikoxo]

This is so interesting! Never knew mollys can be in saltwater! And the babies! So cute!

 

[BigAl07]

This is so interesting! Never knew mollys can be in saltwater! And the babies! So cute!

IIRC Mollies are "Brackish Water" which is why they can tolerate FW or SW. The ones we get at the LFS can be "slowly" acclimated to SW and they usually do quite well. As a bonus, any offspring that are born into SW tend to be even hardier than their parents are.

 

[Seansea]

Ya I raised a few that were born in saltwater. I'm down to 2 in display. Think I had 5 males and one female. The one male picked the others ones off. They say there's a way to tell male from female but I can't do it.

 

[MissMolly]

Congrats on the babies! How are they doing? Here's a pic of my molly babies. Mom is half balloon and dad is dalmation sailfin. I got around 30. Also I have a second bash but they are in the grow out tank.

 

[Seansea]

They were all eatin. And mama is dead. With only one male and one female he basically harassed her to death. So down to one adult molly now. .Good news tho . I got a baby clownfish that has somehow survived in my return chamber of my sump. He is around 4 and a half weeks old. So trying to get him grown.