What do Molly/Guppy Crosses look like?

[theotheragentm]

Foolishly, I kept one male Guppy/Endler cross in my 55 gallon tank after ensuring I had only female Platies and Mollies. I kept thinking, "He's so small. What is he going to do?" He was in the tank for quite a while too with no signs of mating or pregnancy. Well, one of the female Mollies was kind of anti-social as of late and rather large, but I chalked the size up to my accidental overfeeding.

Well, now I have a breeding net full of these little guys. I vaguely recall reading that they are most likely sterile. Is that true? I'm not taking chances just the same. I wonder what they'll look like. Any ideas?

 

[CatatonicBug]

I had no idea that mollies and guppies could mate!

 

[theotheragentm]

I did, and still I left a male Guppy in the tank. Shame on me.

Guppy, Molly, Endler

Platy, Swordtail

Those are the groups that can interbreed.

 

[thatmagicguy]

Well molly/guppy crosses are sterile. Usually the mating only occurs when the two fish have been kept in the same tank with no other guppies or mollys. And the crosses are very rare. I have seen it done a few times and the young seem to be a thin washed out M sphenops shaped fish.

If your female molly has been with a male molly within 2 months then the babies are probably mollys. They can store live sperm for an extended period of time, even have over 4 subsequent broods with no male fish around. So she could have even been impregnated months ago.

If they do turn out to be the endler/molly cross we'd love to see pictures.

Bill

 

[pitt420dude]

I had no idea that mollies and guppies could mate!

Me neither. How about that!

 

[theotheragentm]

The babies are definitely no from a male Molly. I read somewhere that the act of mating can cause female livebearers to create clones of themselves, and that the fry may not even be from the Guppy, but caused by the Guppy trying to mate with the Molly. I didn't see any further reading on that so I doubt it, but maybe someone else could shed some light on the subject.

 

[biogeek]

Just wanted to put in my two cents on this as I actually know the answer (amazing). There are a couple of unisexual live-bearing fish species, one of which is the Amazon molly. Amazons are a species of hybrid origin and initiate egg development by mating with a male of one of the two parental species (sailfins or Atlantic mollies). The cool thing is that they don't incorporate the male's genetics in the offspring so all the fry are female clones of the mother.

However, it is highly unlikely that your molly cloned her babies. It is most likely that she had stored sperm (can last much longer than 2 months). We've had females in the lab drop broods six months after seclusion from males. I have heard that mollies and guppies can hybridize and would love to see some pictures if they ever matured!

 

[kribensis12]

I had that happen one time. I don't have pic's, but i can look for them. It was about 1 inch long( maybe a little longer, and it was like 2 years old), white, with orange and black spots. It had a lyretail shaped tail, but it had a guppies body. It was a spectactular looking fish. Sadly, i don't know what happened to it. I can't remeber which was which, but i belive the mother was a dalmation molly female( i raised her from a batch of 60, and she was a virgin), and a Male guppy( bought him). It did breed with others. It did get pregnant, but i never saw any babies. My brother said while i was gone at church camp, that she birthed in a trap, and the babies were orange, and dead.

 

[beanie]

I have a question how can you tell from a female molly to a male molly?? I have two molly fish and I am not sure if I have a male, female or female...

 

[biogeek]

Like other Poeciliids, telling the males from females is pretty easy when they mature. These fish exhibit internal fertilization which requires a copulatory organ. The male's anal fin (bottom of fish) will fuse into a gonopodium (looks like a stiff single sword-like structure). The female's anal fin remains fanned. Males can flex their gonopodium at will (it moves forward or back against the body) and is most often done when they are courting females or of course when they are mating. Hope this helps.

 

[beanie]

thank you very much this helps alot I was thinking that my black one was female but her is it the white with black dots

 

[jrp1588]

by the way, it's not wise to post your email openly in forums. Good way to pick up a whole lot of spam