Goldfish and Molly

Question
Karen,

I have three tanks.  All have a ph around 7.8 and are seasoned tanks.  

Main tank is 55 gallons with two goldfish, one large comet, about 4 inches and a small shuby.  the goldfish are at room temp, which is 76-78 degrees summer and 74-76 in winter, maybe as low as 70 in a cold snap.  New Orleans weather.


The other tanks are one 10 and one 5, each with one molly in them, a male and female.  Long story, but we got stuck with these guys and had to seperate them to avoid having another 80, which is what we had and unknowlingly only gave away 78.  (Internet was wrong, we had 80 babies and not ONE was eaten by the mom or dad)  

We now must consolidate.  I want to know the compatiblity of putting one of the mollies in the goldfish tank.

The mollies are at 80 degrees with heater,
Can I put the female in with the goldies?
Should I heat the water?
What is the minimum temp, not necessarily optimal, that the mollie will be ok with?
Or do I have to give both mollies away?

There is a lot of misinformation out there.

I have read goldfish are messy, but mine aren't.
I have read that goldfish tanks have high amonia, mine is 0.
I have read that goldfish need cool water, like 70 degrees, but mine are at new orleans room temp, 76-78, and friends of mine have ponds where the goldfish are at 88.
I have read mollies will attack goldfish.
I have read goldfish will attack mollies.

Please advise.

Answer
Hi David, I can understand and relate to your confusion completely. Sometimes the best way to get a reliable answer is to ask someone who has experienced the situation you are in and congrats you have found someone! ;-)

I have gone through the whole molly ordeal. Thinking the parents would eat the babies but they wouldn't ever even attempt to chase them. So I ended up with almost 100 babies before long. My only way out was thankfully I had a petshop nearby and I knew the owner quite well so he took a lot of the fish off my hands but I still had a lot leftover. So what I did is I had an outdoor pond which already had several medium (4-6 inch) goldfish in it, so I put the mollies out for the springtime. The mollies and goldfish all got along fine, even the smaller ones. Your adults will certainly be fine.

Goldfish and just 1 molly should get along fine, especially in such a big tank. And being yours aren't the slow-swimming clumsy type. Mollies don't have to have a heater. They can be adapted to cooler temps and your aquarium certainly never gets too cold for them. Another plus is mollies and Goldfish tend to eat the same type of food, lots of vegetable matter and greens. So even though its unusual,it should work out.

About the goldfish and temperature preference, they are one of the most adaptable aquatic critters out there. I can't help it of course, but my pond gets to the 90's in the summer, that's even with shade from lily pads and other aquatic plants. Yet the goldfish still spawn and do alright. They have such a wide temperature range that there really is no set rule for a temp.

I hope it all works out well and best wishes!
Karen~