livebearers

[Acer]

does anyone know if platys will breed with swordtails? or sword tails with
mollys? ive been thinking about this lately...

 

[CHBGator]

hehe good question. I do see my guppy trying to mate with every fish in the tank at some time or another.

 

[WaterPond]

Yes, pretty much all livebearers can and will interbreed with other species or livebearers.

 

[Acer]

i was thinking what a white male sailfin molly would look like mixed with a red female swordtail, and a red swordtail mixed with blue coral femal platys, my goal would be get the swordtail trait into either the molly or platy

 

[fish_4_all]

Swordtails and platies will interbreed. Mollies and guppies I believe will interbreed although I am not sure. Guppies and swordstails will not interbreed nor will guppies and platties. With that said, you never know and there is always the chance success, or horror story of interbreeding. Like a great dane and a Dachshund. Ugly but succesful. I breed my swordtail for certain traits and in the past I have done the same with swordtails and platties. I cross breed anymore but it because I don't think it is needed to get the colors you want. Just get males and females from different sources and within a couple generation you will have plenty of color variations to try and get the colors you want.

Personally, I am all for doing what we want with our own fish in our own aquariums and keeping them there. Please don't sell the crossbreeds of any fish as it is already too difficult to find a pure specimen of many species. Also, don't give them away unless you know the one getting them will not give them to someone who won't try to keep the market clean of hybrids.

 

[Alshain]

No, only the Xiphporous livebearers will interbreed, this includes platies and swordtails. Guppies and mollies will not interbreed with any other livebearer.

As for not selling crossbreeds. All swortails on the market with the exception of the Green Swordtail are a crossbreed with a platy. In the wild, Platties have a multitude of colors and swordtails are all the same color. It wasn't until they were bred together that you started to see Marigold, Pineapple, Red Velvet, Koi, etc. in the swordtail species. These are all cultivated types.

 

[Acer]

nice, hopefully soon i can have some swortail blue coral platys...

 

[Jaybird]

So mollies and guppies won't breed? Dang, I guess I had better just thrown out my copyright forms for the names moppy and golly.

Guess I will have to find another way to make my millions.

I have seen male guppies trying to mate with mollies, but I have never seen a male molly try to mate with a guppy. Does that mean male guppies are just sluts, or that male mollies are racist?

 

[Alshain]

Lol, I bred a hybrid Swordtail between a Marigold and a Pineapple. It looks like a Marigold but its Deep red like the top half of a pineapple. I have yet to see if the stripe will develop. I was going to call it a Mariapple.

 

[zacusmaximus]

Does that mean male guppies are just sluts, or that male mollies are racist?

Oh man, that's priceless! LOL

 

[Acer]

the local fish store owner has some of the deepest orange swortail strain i;ve seen, they are all orange with black bellys, he said he's trying to get and all black with orange strain going, looks like he's having luck at it but he has over 12 tanks to try this... lucky him

 

[Alshain]

They do have black and white swordtails. I don't get them because my tank is painted black and my substrate is black.

 

[Guest]

i love mollies. I have been seriously considering breeding them into some interesting strains, see what i can come up with.

 

[zacusmaximus]

I also enjoy mollies and most other livebearers. They all seem to have very interesting personalities. (fishalities?)

 

[coldmachineUK]

I've found platies show an interest in mollies, but as alshain said it's never reciprocated! And, I'm not entirely sure what the chances of success would be for offspring being healthy.
I just posted in another thread about something I've noticed with the quality of black mollies lately (bent tails, hunches, and other similar deformities) and I am wondering if this is to do with too much inbreeding.

Endlers are another related fish on livebearer breeding issues: it's so hard to find a pure strain anymore because people have been cross breeding (intentionally or otherwise) with guppies that it makes life a lot harder.

I guess it's 'ok' if this sort of thing would happen in the wild, but I've never been a fan of the whole "hey wouldn't it be cool if I could have a fish with X trait and Y trait"...I've always been happy enough with existing varieties of fish of which there are, to be fair, quite a lot