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THE GREAT MOLLY-SALT DEBATE
Reprinted from the Freshwater & Marine Aquarium Magazine column
One of the oldest-running conventional wisdoms in this hobby is the necessity of adding salt to molly tanks. As the theory goes, mollies experience the "shimmies" without brackish water, and eventually succumb to poor health. The basis for this seemingly age-old wisdom comes from various fishkeepers, as well as the brackish or marine conditions that Poecilia lattipina (the ancestor of all cultivated Mollys), often frequents. The experience of expert molly keepers, collectors, and fish farmers, however, is just the opposite: salt is NOT a requirement for healthy mollies. So who' s right?
The Salty Facts
One of the problems with most of the hobby literature advocating the use of salt is that folks who are not specialized molly breeders often write them. One book I read even advises molly breeders not to bother with any special feeding for the fry, as you'll have more mollies than you need anyway! A good source for authoritative information are the folks at the livebearer hobby organizations, molly collectors, as well as the Florida fish farmers who supply these animals. Here's what they tell us in summary.
Not all Mollies are the same. Pet shop and introduced mollies are usually "aquarium strains" which are hybrids from Poecilia latipinna, P. velifera, and species from the "sphenops" complex.
Mollies are Adaptable. Aquarium mollies are highly adaptable fish that have been introduced all over the world in a variety of fresh and marine habitats. Florida's race of P. latipinna is the only Molly species that commonly inhabits "salt-water" and one of the few (along with a race of P.
velifera) to inhabit "brackish" habitats. This probably explains why aquarium strains of mollies do not have a salinity mortality threshold like other livebearers (most aquarium strains have P. latipinna and/or velifera in their ancestry). I've collected P. latipinna in Key Largo, Florida right next to a Sea Anemone. But just a few miles away in the Everglades, fresh water becomes their biotope. In Shreveport, Louisiana Livebearers Journal Editor Bill Allen collects them in the rainwater-fed drainage ditches! Even the South American One-Spot Molly, P. vivapara, consists of races that exist from both soft rainforests and coastal lagoons. All these fish are breeding and thriving.
Most Mollys Never See Salt. Most if not all the Mollys that inhabit the streams and rivers of Central America will live out their lives without ever venturing into brackish water. Many of these are fish of the "sphenops" complex that include species now classified as Poecilia maylandi, butleri, and salvatoris among others. Aquarium strains with "short fins" or smaller dorsals have these animals in their ancestry. Their biotopes are often fast moving streams and rivers fed mainly by rainfall. These same fish can and do occasionally exist in brackish deltas and marshes, but that does not mean this should be considered the "type" environment for the species. When rains come heavy in that part of the world many fish are "flushed" out to sea. Those that manage to survive often will settle on the tranquil coastal areas, eventually working their way back up to rivers and streams by swimming near the shallow banks.
Maybe it's the hardness - not the salt. Sodium chloride (table salt, NaCl) is not the "salt" natural to most Molly habitats. Florida and Central America's peninsula regions are composed mostly of limestone in many forms. Limestone is composed mainly of calcium carbonate (carbon-based skeletons of old coral seas). If I were to make an educated guess at what makes Florida fish farms such an ideal habitat for Mollys, I would say it's the calcium hardness and high level of carbonates which buffers a
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