# Black Mollies



## juan5pronto (Mar 17, 2007)

How would black mollies do in a tank with a p.h. of 6.8? Would they breed in this low of a p.h.?


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## NoSvOrAx (Nov 11, 2006)

I've yet to find a condition in which they would not breed. And I've tried.


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## Adragontattoo (Jun 3, 2007)

IIRC mollies will breed (or try at the least) in any condition that they can live in.

Im so glad that mollies arent land animals or you wouldnt be able to make it 3" without having to move 100 to get by.


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## toxic69 (Nov 7, 2007)

in the wild mollys are found in all types of water from the coast really salty to rivers ect they are one of them fish that can adapt and live in almost any water so i dubt your ph will bother them at all


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## Round Head (Feb 28, 2006)

I never could get any black mollies to live long enough to breed.
Could it be from a bad petsmart stock?


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

Usually you have to hit Mollies several times with a hammer to stop them (that's a joke Son..please don't try it!)

Mollies are not as bad as Convicts which are not quite as bad as humans at reproducing but will normally breed without any excuse whatsoever. Fresh water...salt water...doesn't matter.

There has to be some obvious reason why Mollies die off but it must be fairly severe.


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## Jessie (Apr 23, 2007)

Cliff Mayes said:


> Mollies are not as bad as Convicts which are not quite as bad as humans at reproducing but will normally breed without any excuse whatsoever.


Just so you know, that comment made my day. Absolutely hysterical.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

It's true! It's true!

I have had to empty out tanks and bleach them to get rid of Mollies. It was the only way to save the world. Those things are as bad as Guppies!


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## Round Head (Feb 28, 2006)

I just got another trio. Keeping my fingers cross.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

Good luck with the Mollies partner. Your tank sounds good on the face of it, the fish should take off.

Your comment about Petsmart interested me. I cruise the large chains once in a while just to see what they have and occasionally score a closeout on hardgoods. The livestock usually looks a little suspect and the prices always seem to be kinda high compared to the LFSs. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a fish from there, if it was something I wanted but I usually don't buy fish there.

Usually two is enough, especially if you get one of each sex, but maybe a colony would help if the trio does not work but before I tried again I would try to find out what was wrong. As a lot of us indicated they should be easy but sometimes, for unknown reasons, some living creature does not thrive for certain tanks while it seems to do well everyplace else. It is probably some very simple thing that causes the problem but…until you discover the simple thing…it can drive you mad.

Again good luck and please keep us posted.


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## longbowaj (Nov 25, 2007)

I have had some recent bad luck with mollies. I bought 3, one male two female from a petsmart. They did fine for a while then suddenly the two females died within 2 days of each other. There weren't any noticeable problems so i called up a local pet store. 

They said the water is not hard enough for mollies. Specifically live bearers prefer to have some hardness in the water, the tap water in my area is soft. 

A few weeks later my male black molly died as well.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

Mollies do best in harder water (as already described) and a higher pH. Also, I don't think temperature was mentioned, but they prefer above average temperatures. This could be your singular problem. Without these needs met, they tend to get the "shimmies" and will die soon after or become inundated with a bacterial infection arising from issues with stress on the epidermis (skin). 

Also, try a vegetable based diet with some protein mixed in. 

GL!


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