Q & A
Here you will find answers to questions submitted via the "Ask Aquaworld" web form by viewers of the Aquaworld Aquarium web site. If you have a question you would like us to answer, go to the Ask Aquaworld web form.
Care for New Born Mollies
Dear Aquaworld,
How do you care for new born mollies?
Trumilla
Reisterstown, Maryland, USA
Dear Trumilla,
Pictured above is a Gold Dust Molly (Poecilia sphenops) in an aquarium and a Koi pond.
New born mollies are very easy to raise. You can feed them crushed flake food and newly hatched brine shrimp. As with all common mollies found in the trade, you should keep them in hard (>200ppm TDS) alkaline (pH >7.6) water. Many molly keepers add at least 1 tablespoon of salt (sodium chloride) per gallon, but this is unnecessary if the water is already very hard. Also, if you keep live plants in the aquarium, salt would not be a good thing to add. Seachem makes an additive marketed for African cichlids called "Cichlid Lake Salt" that will help raise the hardness of water without adding a lot of sodium chloride. I keep mollies in my koi pond during the summertime to control mosquitoes and eat algae. If you keep them outside during the summer, you will notice that they will grow much faster, as they have a constant supply of live natural food.
Tony Griffitts