Can a ballon mollie have fry that are not ballon?

[wwestar2000]

Ok my ballons don't have many fry. And have only had about 5 in the past 4 months. 1 from a female and 4 from a diffrent female. the one always shown ballon characteristics and the others are just straight and not pot bellyed. Now there are only 2 one of each. And they are pretty big now about 3 months old and half the size of the parebts in lenght. So the question is can a ballon give birth to a regular? Without the morph? Maybe One of the ballons got impregnated by a regular in the lfs? idk. I only have ballons and guppies in the tank so any ideas.

 

[WILDER]

I would think so, yes.

 

[Mickslack]

Definatley! I have had endlers that give birth to guppies and platies and mollies mixed this mostley happens when a pet shop mixes fish, but it can happen just as easily in community tanks.

 

[fawnmodel]

Balloon is just a different variation of the Mollies form, and any molly (ie: sailfin, baloon, regular , lyretail, gold, black, white, dalmation etc etc etc) can breed with another.

So, even if you have two ballons, they can have regular offspring. If genetically, they have many generations of the balloon-only shape trait behind them, chances that they would turn out balloon would be greater. But, most petfish Mollies will have been kept with other variations, so the 'strain' would not be purely Balloon, or any coloration but mixed, even if it was pure when they were still with the breeder.

You could theoretically slowly breed your mollies to produce more balloons with stronger balloon genetics, or a specific color, thereby purifying your own strain...

 

[MishyTheFishLover]

Yes, it doesnt matter if you put a male sailfin mollie with a female baloon mollie theyll mate... mollies are all the same breed but look different because of the adaptions they had to make in the wild...

 

[fishman 1]

Unfortunately baloon mollies exist.

It is a pity that breeders cannot spend more time on breeding endangered and rarer species rather than creating freaks of nature.

I am sure they will interbreed with other strains. Just as well as swordtails can be crossed with plattys.