Finding Sailfin Mollies

[KINGMED]

I was wondering if anyone knew of anywhere on line besides aquabid that you could find good stock of Sailfin Mollie. After setting up my 55 I'd like to have some, I had a pair of large gold sailfin mollies in my 29 as a teenager and they were some of the largest sailfin I've ever seen, haven't seen that size since the mid/late 70's. I want at least 1 mail and probably 2-3 females. Also would these be good with Angels,cory's and bristlenose pleco's.

[Algenco]

I remember those 5" beauties!! Haven't seen any like that in a long time

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

You probably won't find anything like that unless you can find someone who actually sells wild sailfins. Unfortunately they have been so overbred they just are not as big as they used to be. That is the one downside to the captive breeding programs for the hobby, many fish don't gain the full characteristics of their wild counterparts.

[KINGMED]

As a kid I lived in Vandalia Illinois and not far in Centralia they had a petstore/fishstore back in the 70's that had some of the best fish I can ever remember. Ya, the sailfins seemed to be huge back then compared to now days standards--they were might favorite fish. To go back and tell you how ignorant I was as a 15 yr. old I had 2 albino channel catfish (which eventually got to be around 10" each), pair of large sailfin mollies, 1 large anglefish, 2-3 3 spot gourami's, I think 1 koolie loach and a algae eaater probably a CAE and somekind of bumble bee fish that swam around the bottom all in a 29 gal. for up to 2-3 years without no ick, sickness (thaat I was aware of) and it was filtered by an undergravel filter. My tank never got cycled, I was constantly empting all the gravel, water and undergravel filter out of the tank, carring the tank to the bathroom where I cleaned it out then took it back into the living room and re-established the tank. I did this around every 4-6 weeks and it all seemed to work O.K., wouldn't try these days, I think GOD saw my ignorance and had mercy on the fish and allowed them to live. I'm so amazed on how overstocked I was and yet they all servived and got along.