Who Knows About Mollies?

[Charles]

Earlier this year I put some platinum mollies into a warmed outdoor
tank. along with them were some goldfish, gambusia, rosy red minnows
and some swordtails. the mollies did well, they made more. some of
the progeny look like spotted, or dalmation mollies.

the larger adult males look to be P. latipinia, or to have a lot of
that in them. this I am guessing by the shape of the dorsal fin.

A local chain store is selling golden mollies. Are they mixed
species, or an inbred P. latipinia as well, or some other species?
anyone know?

what would I expect from a cross between the golden and the platinums?

thanks

[Charles]

nobody, huh?

[Frank]

Mollies as you know, will interbreed - their off spring being a mix of
the breeders. Males carry two color genes - females one, thus the off
spring will carry more of the male breeders color than the female
breeders. A pure, solid colored, or fixed color/body shape, as the
golden "sail fin" mollies at your local pet store, are pure bred
hi-breds, which come from line breeding pure bred fish. Colors, finage
and body shapes can also be from line breeding a ramdom change in gene
frequency resulting in mutations. This is called, line breeding a
genetic drift, which takes years to "fix" the hi-bred fry to breed true
(same as the breeders)..... Hope this helps..... Frank