Molly Platy Hybrids

[niteprincess]

I've been told and have read that the odds of this happening are almost nil....well...I can vouch that it does....I had a female Dalmation Molly in a tank with one Male Dalmation Molly and a few Red Wag Platies....I had the female from the time she was just a wee baby...when she was about 6 mo old she became very pregnant...when she started bumping herself on the gravel...I moved her to a birthing tank...she threw out about 80 dark Molly fry...then...she started throwing what looked like orangey red BBs...about 25 of them...they were very tiny....so was born the hybrids...over time a few died...and..lately I lost a few to a predator...mostly the very tiny ones that never got much bigger than they were at birth....even after many months...the others gre normally ...a year later...I still have 12....some have a more Molly shape...some more a platy...and two look like Balloon Mollies....all are part red orange and part black....some are more black than others....and I have had one reproduce and had two fry...one orange and black...and one silver and black....will post photos...if I can figure out how.

[Dave66]

Welcome to the forum. I doubt a platy/mollie cross, since they are different Genii altogether, and are genetically different. Isn't surprising you get varied fry, since the mollie has been hybridized and genetically selected by people since the 1930's, so you're seeing some of the stages of hybridization expressed in the fry. It's been happening since the '80's mollies not breeding true (colored like their parents).

Dave

[niteprincess]

Most resemble Platies than they do the Mollies...also...she gave birth to all of the Molly normal fry...first...then....30 minutes later...is when she shot out the little mini orange fry...there were a couple of male plates that could be seen trying to mate with her prior to her getting fat with her pregnancy....I'm going to contact one of the universities around here....many around here on the coast do fish studies...and see if I can get a genetic study done on these odd fish...by the way...they do not get along with any Platies or Mollies...and a few are aggressive.

[niteprincess]

Oh...and one more thing....she's had three more batches of fry since that event....and none have been like those orange and black fish...in fact they all looked like the male and female Molly...of course there were no more Platies with her after that first birth.

[Low]

i no livebears can be crossed iv done it i had 10 female platys and some mollys and guppys for about a year and a half and idry but they all died but 3 platys and a male guppy now like i said all the platies were female none of them ever spawned be4 in my tanks but every thing else did and after a few mounths of just them 4 the one platie spawend about 20 fry alot died but a few survied then after awhile the rest died but 1 and she grew and she looked odd not like the other platies at all nor like a guppy and i put 2 and 2 toghter and i got cross bred fish and i looked online and found out it could be done and it was rare but it happened it.

[Scrup]

Welcome to the forum. I doubt a platy/mollie cross, since they are different Genii altogether, and are genetically different.
Dave


I take it you mean Genus...or genera. Genii, in any known usage, is something totally unrelated to genetics.

Intergeneric breeding is not that rare.