Care and reproduction
If you want them to live in your aquarium, then be patient - Molliesia is very capricious. But, despite the difficulties of breeding, these fish are very popular in domestic aquariums. First of all, you need to know that they prefer large aquariums - a couple of adult fish should have at least 6 liters of water. The water must be necessarily clean, warm (26-28 ° C), hard, brackish (use sea salt - 1.5 grams per liter of water). Molliesia love the abundance of plants, but light areas should be in abundance. We will have to take care of the lighting - a sunny day should last at least 12 hours. These fish can not tolerate temperature changes. At the head of the male, they flock along the middle and upper parts of the aquarium slowly. If the fish are pinned fins or sluggishly float, it means that they are not satisfied with the conditions, most often it is in the lowered temperature of the water.
Feeding mollies is not different from feeding other fish - they will gladly eat both live, and vegetable, and dry food. The main thing is to follow the variety of the diet. Some varieties for a brighter coloring should be given food with carotenoids, but for example, a marinella mollenesia needs a fasting day, since it is prone to overeating.
Molinenizii - viviparous fish. Before spawning the female is planted in a separate aquarium with the same conditions as in the main. Recognize the pregnant female is easy - on the swollen abdomen, which has a dark speck. The female can bear offspring for about 2 months, after which there are about 60 or more fairly large fry. It is important to monitor the temperature in the aquarium, because from a temperature drop in a fish, premature birth may occur. After the birth of the fry, the female is sent home, in its own aquarium, the fry are also growing separately for about a month. To feed them should be as usual, but to monitor the purity and temperature of water should be especially carefully.
Types of Mollies
There are a lot of Mollies.
- Sailing Mollenesia or the velor has a large upper fin, for which it received its name. This species is considered the most beautiful. Their main feature is that females are slightly larger than males.
- Molliesia red has a bright color with orange spots, similar to the spots of a leopard. Hence its other name - the "red leopard". Quite livable variety.
- Molliesia, gold or albino, has a yellow-orange coloration and red, albino-characteristic eyes.
- Molliesia marble or "Snowflake" is named so for its color - white with a bluish tint. This is the breeding species of sailing Mollies, which appeared in the 90s.
- Lyre-tailed Mollies are fish, whose tail shape resembles a lyre with long upper and lower rays.
Molliesia sphenops ("black molli"), molliesia, molliesia of lutipina, molliesia dwarf, molliesia Peten, etc. are also often found. On the most often you can see breeding species of fishes of various shapes and colors.
Compatibility of Mollies
Mollieses are peaceful enough and get on well with each other, and with other aquarium fish, if they are also peaceful and not very different in size, guppies and mollieses are well compatible. In one aquarium, Mollies and Sclerias can safely adjoin one another. But the compatibility of goldfish and Mollies is better not to check - it is practically absent.