I never thought I could love a Molly fish

[Dawn]

Many months back, I had a disaster in my 45 gallon tank.  A heater went bad on me, overheating the tank, I lost everything inside.  The plants survived and the snails survived (go figure).  I loved the tank, planted with turquoise rainbow fish and a chocolate pleco.   I let this tank run with nothing more than a yoyo loach which I moved from another tank.  My kids have been giving me grief about this tank for awhile now.  But money is tight and replacing with more expensive fish (like I wanted) wasn't an option.  So I headed off to a big box store about a week ago and came home with 15 mollies.  5 each of orange, black, and long fin.  I haven't lost a single fish.  And this tank has never looked better.  I did a few small doses of meds just in case, but mostly just added them to the tank.  The plants are starting to look awesome...bright and green!!  These little guys have cleaned off most of the algae.  For a fish that I wouldn't have given a first thought to a year ago, I sure do love these little guys.  It was a heartbreak for me when that tank went down, but I've been enjoying it so much this week. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Wonderful story Dawn! It's funny how the fish you see so commonly in stores and some consider "starter" fish are often the best fish. I didn't expect to fully fall in love with Otos (I knew I'd like them but not to the levels I've gotten), or Hillstreams, or Harlequins or even Guppies. But even though they come cheap their little lives are priceless finprints in our hearts. 🥰

[Fish Folk]

On 2/7/2022 at 3:09 PM, Dawn said:

Many months back, I had a disaster in my 45 gallon tank.  A heater went bad on me, overheating the tank, I lost everything inside.  The plants survived and the snails survived (go figure).  I loved the tank, planted with turquoise rainbow fish and a chocolate pleco.   I let this tank run with nothing more than a yoyo loach which I moved from another tank.  My kids have been giving me grief about this tank for awhile now.  But money is tight and replacing with more expensive fish (like I wanted) wasn't an option.  So I headed off to a big box store about a week ago and came home with 15 mollies.  5 each of orange, black, and long fin.  I haven't lost a single fish.  And this tank has never looked better.  I did a few small doses of meds just in case, but mostly just added them to the tank.  The plants are starting to look awesome...bright and green!!  These little guys have cleaned off most of the algae.  For a fish that I wouldn't have given a first thought to a year ago, I sure do love these little guys.  It was a heartbreak for me when that tank went down, but I've been enjoying it so much this week. 

Awesome! Mollys were the last fish my son bred for his Advanced Breeder award with our Fish Club. He started with four  Tangerine Painted Lyretail Mollys...

But once they had fry, the babies split out black / koi...

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I'm going to make a special trip to shop for fish at @Fish Folk's house

[Patrick_G]

I agree! They’re one of the first fish I owned as a kid and I still think they’re really cool. I especially like the Dalmatian variety you see at almost every big box store. 

[Levi_Aquatics]

I have never kept mollies, but I’d definitely like to at some point. Great story!

[H.K.Luterman]

Sorry to hear what happened to the tank, but I'm so glad you're enjoying its reboot! Mollies are great fish. So colorful and so much personality! 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I'm so happy you did not give up when you hit some adversity. Like any hobby - tennis, golf, ceramics etc there is a learning curve. In our case it is difficult when we lose animals. Enjoy the mollies, I have a group very similar to the ones that @Fish Folkand his boys have in my youngest sons tank. 

[Colu]

Welcome to the forum sorry to hear about your heater problems mollies are really colourful very enjoyable to watch a friend of kept a large group of sailfin Mollies they looked great in a large planted tank