Fish ID help - wildcaught Florida minnows

[CatfishRex]

Holbrooki have finely spotted tails the op's fish don't so they are affinis

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Thank you, That's good to know, I have some and looked for differences only to find dorsal ray numbers (7 for affinis and 8 for holbrookie) and distribution maps, which I realize aren't always accurate.

 

[Linwood]

Can you post some pics of your wild caught sailfin mollys? I'm just curious what they look like

Sure. Here's the female:

She just keeps getting bigger and bigger; she's released at least two batches of babies, and some are surviving and now starting to grow out. I may have to start removing some soon -- for reasons completely lost on me few are being eaten by the MUCH larger congos.

And the larger male (I had two males, one got almost twice the size of the other, not sure if different species -- this large one died then later (after a couple spans -- maybe wore himself out, he did nothing but harass the poor female).

I'm aware I should have had several females to each male, but these were just chance caught, and I actually expected them to become lunch when I added to the community tank. They were VERY tiny. Here's a phot from when caught. They are the top two fish in this photo (the bottom killifish died in quarantine for reasons unknown). At the time of this photo they were about a half inch long, very tiny things (not even sure which was which). At the time I also thought them to be mosquito fish.

 

[Linwood]

Lin, just had a thought.. you were collecting ghost shrimp? Was the source brackish? Is this the same source?

I've tried twice with wild caught ghost shrimp, and the first time about 80% died (sadly the remaining ones, then doing fine, were eaten by my congos), and this time 100% died.

I went to two different places, both known to be fresh water, not brackish. I even tested water parameters to make sure they were fairly similar (GH, KH, PH, TDS). My water was not quite as high of general hardness (7 vs 11) but otherwise darn close. And long period of acclimatization, at least this last time, after the first poor showing. No idea.

My one-time buy of ghost shrimp from a LFS had only about 5% mortality (those sadly succumbed to a treatment for camallanus worms in the tank, which is why I wanted some more).

 

[Linwood]

More likely gambusia holbrooki
The last one, with the long anal fin is male they ones with the black dot are female.
Either way they are mosquito fish

Holbrooki have finely spotted tails the op's fish don't so they are affinis

Good to know. I think I may just clear the tank then and start over. I realize they might do OK in a community tank as I read they can adapt to flakes (they are largely only eating bloodworms in my QT now), but they don't look like an interesting addition.

The sailfin molleys were, as that one male got very bright yellow. I was hoping for other variations of them. But I need a lot more education before I can tell these guys apart when they are very small.

 

[Gillie]

I had always wanted wild sailfins, could never find them and finally when I moved to Florida found them in the ditch in my front yard and the spring in the back.

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[henningc]

Gambusia Affins - Mean fin nipper fry eating machines