Are you trying to determine if your mollies can live without a filter? Is it possible to raise your mollies without using a filter?
In this article, we will review methods you can employ to grow your mollies without using a filter.
Can Mollies Live Without a Filter? Mollies can survive without filters for a limited time. Mollies need clean water in the tank at all times in order to thrive.
Although, this might be challenging as you may have to continuously change the water in their tank.
Why Do They Need a Filter?
You need a filter in an aquarium to help cleanse the water of debris, remove the toxic build-up of ammonia and nitrates while also aerating the water to allow your fish to breathe easily.
Opting to keep live fishes without a filter could be traumatizing for the fish and also pose an arduous task for you — the pet keeper, as you would have to adopt the option of cleansing your regular fish tanks constantly to keep it clean.
This may require you to remove the fish from its comfort when you could quickly achieve this with a filter.
Filters make your life as a pet fish keeper easier, so you don’t need to worry too much about keeping your aquarium clean.
The filter does the job of preventing the toxic build-up of ammonia and aerating the tank water effectively to ensure that the fish have access to an adequate oxygen supply. When you use a filter, all you have to do is monitor to prevent clogging.
How to Filter Water Without a Filter
You can filter water without using a filter by boiling the water to remove the bacteria or other contaminants from the water, you can also filter your water by exposing it to ultraviolet light which would damage the DNA of disease causing microorganisms.
There are different ways of filtering water without using a filter. They include:
1. Boiling Water
Boiling water for one minute or more makes it safe for drinking. Experts have posited that boiling water makes the water less susceptible to carry infectious diseases as most waterborne microorganisms are rendered powerless when exposed to a high temperature.
2. UV Treatment
The technique of using ultraviolet light to treat water requires you to expose the water to ultraviolet sunlight, which would damage the DNA of viruses, bacteria, and other disease-causing microorganisms.
3. Tablets or Drops
There are certain tablets or drops containing chemicals that would help you filter your water and make them readily available for consumption. The most commonly used tablets and drops used in filtering water include:
- sodium dicholoroisocyanurate,
- iodine,
- tetraglycine hydroperiodide, and
- chlorine dioxide.
4. Other Methods
Other methods that could be used to filter your water without using a filter are;
- Activated charcoal
- Using Travelsize sediment filters
- DIY portable sediment filters
- Fruit peel filters
How Long Can Mollies Live Without a Filter?
Mollies can live without filters for a short period of 1 to 3 days. However, they can live longer if you adopt other filtering methods without filters and continuously change the water in the tank.
Filtering the water in which mollies are placed helps to ensure that they have access to enough oxygen, which would be aerated to provide enough oxygen than being inhaled through the gills of the molly fish and ensure survival; therefore keeping mollies without constant purification of the water might hinder oxygen supply and could result in the death of the poor fish.
The meals that are provided to mollies contain ammonia which, when built up, could result in the reduction of oxygen level in the tank, meaning that the duration of time that mollies can survive within the aquarium without a filter is limited as you would need to feed them.
Without a filter to purify built-up ammonia in the tank, the fish would become asphyxiated.
Can Baby Mollies Live Without a Filter?
Baby mollies can live without filter for a few days if you are careful not to feed the fry too much food. As long as there’s no build-up of debris and ammonia in the tank your baby mollies can continue to survive without a filter.
Avoiding feeding the molly fry with too much food would ensure that they do not produce enough waste to require constant water filtration. This is quite important if you plan to keep the baby fish outside of a tank for a short period.
However, you must install in place a sound filtration system to ensure that your molly fry can live a long time without you having to worry about constantly changing the water.
A simple foam filter could be set up to ensure that the filter put in place is baby molly safe.
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