Showing off a few of my saltwater raised mollies!

[nastronaut]

Hey there,

Below are some pictures showcasing a couple of the favorites of my saltwater mollies. This batch has been born and raised here in this DT over the past year (not the black molly, acclimated).

It's been my first fish breeding experience and there has been a learning curve, but I'm super happy with how they're maturing and the boys have been growing their sailfins and developing more and more colors after quite a long wait - which has been really cool to see.

Started with a black Molly (female) who had been acclimated and a green sailfin (male) who has since passed, but has many offspring now

Rapidly approaching about where the next generation will emerge and I'm excited to see what kind of color diversity it brings.

 

[Humblefish]

Nice! Have you ever tried any of the gold or sliver sailfin mollies??

 

[Tamberav]

They are really pretty... they always seem more vibrant in salt water.

 

[Miami Reef]

Those look expensive and exotic!

 

[nastronaut]

Nice! Have you ever tried any of the gold or sliver sailfin mollies??

I have a friend who's working with gold/silver (not sailfin), and we're in talks about breeders and such.

Personally I'd opted for these parents due to the nature of green sailfin and black being naturally found in SW. I'm very interested in exploring more though. The direction I've been pressing is towards a black sailfin with the vibrant patterns (reds and blues on sailfin and tail, with predominately black otherwise). I didn't really suspect I'd feel as close to the goal post the first generation in, and think that the next batch would likely have some largely black mollies (and hopefully w/ sailfins).

My premise has been creating a unique variety that's more hardy to SW environments than the typical acclimated molly, thusfar.

I'd love to branch out into other colors and patterns too, I think space is my big limiting factor right this moment, but I'm looking at setting up new grow outs for the coming fry so maybe we'll have some wiggle room (just don't tell my partner ).

 

[nastronaut]

Those look expensive and exotic!

Thank you! I actually just let go of the first batch of 20, been hoarding them up until this week. It feels super rewarding finding them a good long term home locally where they can have a positive impact. Saving the latter 20~ or so for my own breeder stock.

I'm very excited as they've been enlisted to work on a local coral farm here in Austin, Tx. Currently they're hard at work in a 100gal live rock cycling tub, cleaning up algae, and living their best life. Once they graduate from there they'll live in some massive frag tanks helping keep locally aquacultured coral clean

 

[nastronaut]

Woo, I knew it was coming but woke up surprised to meet the first of the F2's this morning! (Technically most likely F1b, but we're gonna round up to save myself a bit of confusion as I'm not 100% certain if all or some are F1b/F2)

Some of them look way more dark than fry of the past, excited to see if they stay black and what kind of patterns come!

 

[nastronaut]

1 month old now!

 

[HNSmith88]

Nice!! We have converted a couple bigger ones. However I think my long tentacle are one of mine....

 

[SickBlennyDad]

What's the proper way to acclimate mollies?

 

[Dierks]

They grow up so fast!

 

[nastronaut]

Nice!! We have converted a couple bigger ones. However I think my long tentacle are one of mine....

Hehe my bta has also eaten a fry or two haha, though not from this batch.

What's the proper way to acclimate mollies?

Honestly this is a big reason I'm line breeding in SW, because acclimated mollies have relatively high attrition rate in my experience. I think the slow method is probably best, in a dark space for 1-2 days.

Once they've come to full salinity don't toss them into full flow, consider adding sponge filters onto powerful power heads (while they get used to it for 2-3 days) and intakes so they don't get stressed out and or wounded and keep water quality super clean to prevent bacterial infections.

They grow up so fast!

They do . Just got a big new molly shelf to add new growout space, and keep track of more than one batch of fry! Also trying to keep the water quality better than previous experiences to grow a little quicker, need them to be able to escape power heads and other fish.

 

[nastronaut]

baby Molly update, smallest are about 2 weeks (x8 of them), big ones (around x30 of them) are about to be 2 months, and the biggest are about to hit 1 inch.