Tips to Help Molly Fish Live Longer

Beginners and experienced aquarists love to keep Molly fish because it is a peaceful, friendly, and fast-growing fish. It is available in different shades of white, black, silver, golden, yellow, and orange that tempt the fish-keepers. Plus, it is a hardy fish that tolerates a slight mismatch in the aquarium.

But does this mean anyone can keep Mollies healthily? Of course not – knowing the lifespan of this fish is also important, along with its diet and tank requirements when you are planning to keep it.

Average Lifespan of Molly

The factor of knowing the lifespan is more applicable for Molly fish because it comes with a short lifespan of 3-5 years. Different variants of Molly Fish have a different lifespan, but it is never more than five years.

Most of the Molly fish live longer in their natural habitat, and they have more endurance there. They can cope up with the environmental changes easily; however, their endurance is much reduced when they are placed in captivity.

It is not wrong that Mollies are hardy aquarium fish. But if you neglect its diet, tank requirements, or reschedule water cleaning, and allow it to stay in dirty water or low oxygenated aquarium just because they are hardy and they can survive, you are wrong. By doing these, you are probably making their lifespan even shorter.

All about Maximizing the Lifespan of Molly

You have to try to maximize their lifespan to 5 years. Here are some tips which can help you in doing this:

Be Careful About Its Foods

• In order to maximize its lifespan, you will need to feed high-quality food to Molly fish by avoiding Low-quality store-bought food. It is an omnivorous fish, and you have to make a diverse diet for this fish.

• You have to avoid feeding them only the meaty substances as they consume plenty of algae in their natural habitat. A balanced diet of plant matter and animal protein is required here.

• You can definitely feed homemade foods to them. For this, you will need to chop spinach, carrot, cucumbers, and beans in small pieces and make mushy by boiling. However, if that seems difficult, you can offer your Mollies store-bought flakes and pellets.

• Along with spirulina tablets and veggie treats, offer them animal protein. Mollies enjoy Bloodworm, Tubifex, daphnia, and Brine Shrimp (live and frozen) very much.

• Daphnia and vinegar eels are also very rich in protein among the Mollies. Remember to look for any germ and parasite in live foods, which can decrease the lifespan of Mollies.

• It will be very good to feed them on a diverse diet, but it is more important not to overfeed them. The quantity of food has to be determined by experts. On average, Molly fish can be fed once a day and observe that the given food is consumed within 3-5 minutes.

• The experts will give you a better idea of the frequency and quantity of feeding based on the age and size of your fish. Beware of taking help from Google for this.

Mollies are full-grown at the age of 4 months only, so you don’t need to adjust its food quantity, thinking that your fish is growing.

Manage aquarium water

Maybe you have the correct knowledge that Molly fish can bear slightly hot or cold water temperature and different pH levels. But these mismatches have a bad impact on the lifespan of the Mollies.

• Keep in mind that the temperature range is 70-82°F (21.1- 27.7°C) and you have to keep it around 75-77°F (23.8- 25°C) for the wellbeing of Mollies. pH level should be 7.0-8.0, and hardness has to be 15-30 dGH to replicate their natural environment. You can add one pinch of salt in the aquarium to keep them healthy.

• Water testing after every five days is mandatory, and you can make changes only if the test result asks you to do so. In case you are going to make any change in these three factors, do it slowly. For example, if pH has fallen to 5.0, you can’t make it 7.0 at once – rather, you have to increase it by .5 or 1.0 every day. Your fish will be stressed if you tried to do this change at once. The same thing is applicable for temperature and hardness.

• You have to be an active observer too so that you can find any changes in the health of this fish or spots in its body each week.  

• 10% water change is mandatory every week, and you can’t reschedule it if you aim to maximize the lifespan of Mollies.

Set Tank Wisely

• Mollies like to stay in a shoal, and you can keep 2-3 Mollies. It grows 4.5” (11.43 cm), so to keep this shoal of 3, a 20-gallon tank will be required, which will allow them to continue their playful activities. Beware of overstocking the tank and selecting unsuitable tank mates.

• Male Mollies are aggressive and sometimes territorial, so make sure the males have a separate place to remain peaceful. As they are livebearers, putting one male with one female will shorten the lifespan of the female because of frequent breeding. So, try to keep one male with 2-3 females.

• If you want to set a community tank, you must know that they are compatible with small and peaceful fish like Guppy, Harlequin Rasbora, Dwarf Gourami, Bristlenose Pleco, Platies, and Tetras. However, Molly is incompatible with large and aggressive ones like Angelfish and Oscar Fish.

• Aquatic plants are necessary to keep the stress-less. Caves, driftwood, and rocks are also needed to make their hiding place. You have to select the gravels wisely as they prefer sandy substrate. Also, set the pump accordingly as they prefer slow-moving water and install filtration to keep the tank clean.  You may need to siphon out the dirt on alternate days.

• As it is a diurnal-active fish, lighting is important, but make sure to turn off light to indicate night and allow them to rest.

These factors can help you to raise a healthy Molly fish and allow it to live longer. In addition to these tips, you can purchase a Molly from a reliable breeder or store to get a genetically healthy Molly fish. You just need to be extra careful not just to pet Mollies but in case of all pet fish, especially the short-lived ones, by fulfilling their tank and water requirements to maximize their lifespan.