Mollies are the rabbits of the fish world

[Jonna]

I started with about 25 Mollies in the outside pond.  About equally divided between the Pearl white sailfin with blue tails, the black and orange Duke and the black and white Marble.


I think there could conservatively be a thousand mollies in there now!  I can't believe how they've multiplied.   The white sailfin's seem to be the most prolific, it sometimes looks like a snowstorm in the water. 

Today a friend dropped by with a bag of water hyacinth from his pond.  When we put it in the pond, the mollies swarmed it like it was a broken piñata full of candy.  The big ones seem to ignore it but the teenagers went wild.



Somewhere in that pond there are also a couple of black plecos but I haven't seen them since I released them.  I also have a few guppies and I originally put 4 angel fish about 1" high in there.  Lately we've seen 2 of the Angels and they are at least 4" top to bottom.  My friend was standing watching them the other day and swears she saw the Angel fish eat one of the tiniest mollies, just zoomed up and swallowed it she said.  If that's happening, no wonder the Angels have grown so much and maybe I need more of them. 

I'm considering putting one - so they won't breed - gold fish in there to control the molly population.  It would be more fun to use the Angel fish though, they just don't seem to eat enough.  I know, that's bad but really, there are so many Mollies that I can't have them continue to breed like this.  Did I mention that I never feed them?  sigh.

[Ky Kim]

Oh, how nice.  Yup, they are water rabbits.  I put guppies (two pair) one year in my front yard puddle and had hundred by the fall at least.  Needless to say, I never did that again.  What a pita catching them all for the winter.

[bunny56lbc]

When I had an aquarium  , I always had mollies in it....love them .
I bet they do breed worse than rabbits in a pond...they're very pretty 

bonnie

[aravenschild]

I don't think a goldfish will eat enough of the baby mollies,

You could sell them back to where you got the adults from, our give them away as door prizes......

[Vickie]

I started out with 3 or 4 Mickey Mouse Platies about 2 years ago I have at least 200 or more and that is with not saving all of them. I have to bring  them in for winter. I do have about 6 or 7 Bull Frogs and many bull frog tadpoles. I also have Gambusi. I have a few Mollies too. So maybe they will all balance out.

[jw]

They look so pretty in your pond. How lucky you are to be able to keep them out there year round.

[LeeAnne151]

Angelfish will eat more than goldfish. I would not add goldfish. The tropical fish are so beautiful.

[Julles]

those mollies come in some of the most beautiful colors - bright, irridescent, eerie blue. 

Jonna - do your mollies live all year?  I thought mine would survive a Houston winter, but they didn't reappear in the spring.  Do the rest of you northerners bring yours indoors when it gets cold?

[miguynmkoi]

I use to have mollies in an aquarium....but your sailfin mollies are beautiful!!!  I've never seen so many in a pond (or anyone here with them).  How spectacular to see so many white fishies like a cloud moving around in your pond!  I agree with LeeAnne, go with more angel fish.  It's cool you don't even have to feed them.

[Jonna]

I have been concerned that the Angel Fish were too aggressive with each other.  I had 4, now we only see 2.    I may get more and see how it goes, this time though I'm getting the white ones.  The ones I have are tan and brown and they are really hard to see, especially from above.  It is possible that there are still 4 in there and we are seeing different pairs.  Or, 2 could have died when they were still small and we didn't notice them floating. 

Big news! I saw one of the plecos last night for the first time!! I'm so thrilled.  The water is finally clearing enough that I can see the bottom.  The plecos are a kind of grey with stripes and they seem to be very shy, when I got the flashlight on him he zoomed under some rocks.  Still, I saw him!!!      He's alive!  I figured we would have found the bodies if they died but it has been months since I put them in and not one sighting until last night.  Of course, it's hard to see anything in split pea soup.   He looked to be about 6 or 7 inches long, he's grown a few inches. 

The Mollies will be fine all year in the pond, the lowest of the low temps here is in the high 50's and that is unusual.  Winter nightime lows are generally in the high 60's during a cold spell.  The water temp may get into the low 70's but I think that isn't a problem for them.   I put the Angel's in the pond during the coldest part of the year, in Feb when the water temps were probably as low as they will get.  I'll have to go and look for their temperature range but I think they will be fine. 

[Reedman]

If you pond is big enough, you could put in one golden orfe.   Mine ate 72 rosey red minnows in one day.

[tinkster]

Thats the only thing I really HATE about ponding is trying to erradicate my pond of the baby goldfish.  My koi are getting big and need the room and there must be a 1,000 new babies from the few goldfish I couldnd catch last year.  I am tempted to take out my 3 koi and drain it to get rid of them.

tink

[Jonna]

I have to admit that when we are pumping the pond down or cleaning the bog, Mimi and I spend way too much time with spoons catching the little fry and saving them.  We can't kill them on purpose.  I can let nature take its course as long as I'm not watching.  So fish eating fish when I'm not around is OK.   Tonight I was at a party for the 4th and someone there told me that I would have to find Angel's of the same size to put in the pond or the bigger ones would kill the smaller ones.  This is all much too primal.

[Bytestalker]

Your friend was correct.  The Angels need to be the same size  or a little larger in order to survive.  Also if you can move some of your plants around that would also help.  Angels that are established will take on any new fish, but by moving the plants around you sort of play with their mind and it looks all new to all of them.  It cuts down on the aggression.  That how you have to handle them in an aquirium and it works.

Robert

[Jonna]

I looked up Golden Orfe and it says they are more of a cold water fish like koi, I'm trying to stay with the tropicals so they will be healthier.

Moving plants around is a little hard in a big pond, I could rearrange the lilies but I'm not sure they would notice    I'm thinking of putting the new angel fish in a milk crate with the top above the water so they are basically separated.   If they lived in there for awhile and got larger perhaps they would coexist?

My big decisions about fish is coming up soon as it looks like I can put water in the inside pond later this week.  I want to stock it with cichlids and I'll need to get them all at the same time and about the same size.  Fun decisions though.

[robie]

you have a lot of mollys ,  your pond is full of life ¡¡
and the water is clear ¡¡¡ 
saludos jonna