Fish ID

[wildroseofky]

I found some strange small fish in my 29 gallon tank about 5 weeks ago. I do have three sets of Molly fry in this tank but they are from 3 months to 2 months old. Other tank inhabitants are neon tetras and male fancy and endler guppies. When I first saw them I thought maybe one of the females held onto some fry longer than normal and then birthed them These little fish did not look like any of the molly fry I already had though. They were sand colored and appeared to have faint dotted black lines on their bodies. I just decided to wait and see what they turned out to be. It has now been around 5-6 weeks since I spotted them and they have not grown much. They are about half the size of an endler guppy and a few of them are pregnant. They have developed spots and a few have square bellies and gravid spots. They are translucent and I can see small eyes in their bellies. They are obviously not molly fry. I added some Camboba I got from aquabid to this tank about 7 weeks ago. I QT the plants in a bucket for a week before planting them. Could something have still made it into my tank from the plants? These little fish love to swim in the outflow of the filter. They do not school with the molly fry but do school with each other. They appear to like fast moving water and spend a lot of time playing in it. They are a sandy, translucent color. They have a darker horizontal line through their body. They have almost black vertical lines made up of small dots. They are showing some speckling with black dots. Their fins are black and squared off. Anyone have any ideas.

 

[Jev12]

Possibly a hybrid between Molly's and guppies or the the endlers even since they are so small

 

[wildroseofky]

I only had three female mollies in that tank and they all gave birth 2-3 months ago. If I understand it right, it takes three months from one birthing to being pregnant again. Wouldn't that be too soon for more fry? I have kept a close eye on the mothers because I sell the fry to my local pet store and she likes them to be around three to four months old. The first girl who gave birth is just starting to get a belly again and my other two girls are not showing any signs of being pregnant. The lone male molly is courting them again now though. I just added the endler guppies yesterday. I did have two fancy males in there so they could have done the deed but the time frame between the three groups of fry doesn't add up. The last photo shows one of my youngest molly fry with one of the oddball fish. Plus at least two of these new fish are pregnant. You can see the fry in their bellies. 6 weeks is too soon for them to have matured and gotten pregnant if they are molly/guppy crosses isn't it. I am constantly working on this tank and observing it so I know they were not in there until 6 weeks ago. I have put the pregnant girls and a few of the males in a 5 gallon tank I had cycled to see when they give birth. I kept waiting for them to grow so I could figure out what they were but they are apparently mature.

 

[Khuligirl93]

The fish in your picture appear to be mollies. I would suspect they successfully avoided getting eaten and hid for the first few weeks of life and you are just now finding them.
They most definitely look like mollies though. Are the pictured fish the ones you think are pregnant? Because they are not, look closely- that is just a black spot on their stomach that's part of their coloration. The spot where their gravid spot would be is farther back directly in front of their anal fin.
They could be skinnier than your other fry because 1) they are younger (it's not an exact science of when female livebearers give birth- sometimes a few pop out irregularly) and 2) because they were kept in the tank with adults they have had to compete for food and struggle to avoid being eaten.

 

[wildroseofky]

The females I think are pregnant have the gravid spot near the anal fin. These fish are translucent and when back lit you can see right through them. Two of the girls have small black specks like eyes in their abdomens. The fourth picture shows the youngest of my mollies with the newly found fish. I have separated some of them into a tank by their selves. They are colored nothing like a molly. They almost have a pale black grid pattern on their bodies that did not show up in the photo. I always have fry survive in this tank. My girls do not eat their young or at least I have never seen them do it. I always have lots of babies. I feed them very well and the young fish are always fat. LOL These have grown very little since I found them. Maybe they are some type of throw back to wild mollies? Two of my females and the lone male came from the original two mollies I owned. One female and the male are from the same birthing and the other female is from their first batch. I bought a female creamsicle molly to help keep the male busy. He is going into another tank soon so the girls can have a rest. I will just keep watching the new additions and see what happens. If they stay the color they are, I will offer them to the pet store as feeders. If they are molly/guppy crosses they will not be able to breed. Or that is my understanding. So being in their own tank will make that easy to find out. They are not really ugly. Just plain.

 

[Khuligirl93]

Mollies can have a variety of colors that might be surprising and look nothing like the parents. I would go with the hypothesis that it is a Molly gone slightly back towards wild coloring. Maybe it is just not as healthy as others and didn't fatten up.

 

[mrvincent]

This is molly, but I can't tell you what type of. Your fish look stressed, but it's because he's in a bag

On the last picture, he's with a normand's lampeye.