Re: NANFA-L-- Amazon Mollies

dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
Mon, 07 Feb 2005 14:22:10 -0600

Moon, No one really knows the parentage of all the aquarium mollies, especially blacks. Black morphs of several molly species occur in the wild, but the most common are from Poecilia sphenops. Some are also from P. latipinna. The sail fin on the fish you bought suggests latipinna, velifera (or other tropical) heritage, but the red margin on the fin suggests some other parentage also, even including sphenops. The short of it is, mollies in the aquarium trade are derived from lineages long ago established from a variety of parents. Unless you bought fish from a breeder who could document his fish, I would just call them "black mollies." That is sort of like saying that your pet dog is a dog.

Dave

David L. McNeely, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Langston University; P.O. Box 1500
Langston, OK 73050; email: dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
telephone: (405) 466-6025; fax: 405) 466-3307
home page http://www.lunet.edu/mcneely/index.htm

"Where are we going?" "I don't know, are we there yet?"

----- Original Message -----
From: Moontanman-in-aol.com
Date: Monday, February 7, 2005 1:58 pm
Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Amazon Mollies

> Ok, which Mollie is the prettiest? Largest in size with the
> biggest fins? I
> used to buy these enormous black mollies with huge dorsal fins
> that had red
> trim. what ever happened to them and what species were they?
>
> Moon
>

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