Just Read Something Disturbing In Another Thread

Jozlyn · Mar 29, 2007

I was just reading a thread about Mollies changing colour.

http

/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=187702&hl=

One response mentions "Mollies have been selectively bred and cross-bred with guppies" will my Molly breed with my guppies? :unsure:

I have one female Molly and 5 male Guppies! I don't know if they're trying to breed with her because I don't know what that looks like, what do they do when they're mating?

Am I going to end up with some sort of a batch of dodgy fry that are going to be deformed or something? :-(

theotheragentm · Mar 29, 2007

It is possible for Mollies and Guppies to crossbreed, but I haven't seen it myself in my tanks. I think it's because of size differences. It's like a Chihuahua mating with a Saint Bernard, but a little more likely than that.

Jozlyn · Mar 29, 2007

But what does it look like if they're trying to breed with her, what do they do?

WildernessLofts · Mar 29, 2007

The same thing they would do to female guppies. Swim up underneath her and try to stick his gonopodium (anal fin) near her vent to fertilize eggs.

Miss Wiggle · Mar 29, 2007

it is possible, just be glad you have male guppies and a female molly

molly fry are bigger than guppy fry and the female guppies body isn't designed to handle it, so it can often kill the mother giving birth. at least for the female molly if she has guppy sized fry it shouldn't hurt her.

on the other hand though if they do start to mate you now have a ratio of 1f:5m which is obviously completely the wrong way round and could cause it's own problems.

SnBMeg · Mar 29, 2007

The resultant hybrids are often refered to as "muppies." (...Which is probably better than calling them "gollies."

) They're not all that uncommon, although I don't think that I know anyone personally who's had any.

Jozlyn · Mar 29, 2007

WildernessLofts - Ok, thanks, haven't seen anything like that happen YET!

Miss Wiggle - She mostly chases them if they go near her they don't appear to chase her at all, they're too busy messing with each other and playing in the current from the filter.

SnBMeg - Muppies :rofl:

I wonder what they'd look like, are they fertile? Not that I want any anyway. Miss Molly has just delivered 30+ fry, so I'm up to my eyeballs in little fish at the moment!

SnBMeg · Mar 29, 2007

Well, I did some digging and came up with this page: http

/forums.aquariumhobbyist.com/view.php?id=13667,13961

It's got a photo of a supposed muppie. I found various discussions (in forums and such) as to whether they were sterile or not, and there was at least one account of them being fertile, although there's a lot of debate on it.

I also came across mention of molly/endler hybrids called "mendlers." :blink:

As of Monday morning I'm now up to 36 balloon fry, myself. X3 I love fry so much!

Jozlyn · Mar 29, 2007

SnBMeg said:
Well, I did some digging and came up with this page: http/forums.aquariumhobbyist.com/view.php?id=13667,13961

It's got a photo of a supposed muppie. I found various discussions (in forums and such) as to whether they were sterile or not, and there was at least one account of them being fertile, although there's a lot of debate on it.

I also came across mention of molly/endler hybrids called "mendlers."

As of Monday morning I'm now up to 36 balloon fry, myself. X3 I love fry so much!

The picture looks like a ballon molly, what do you think?

What do you do with your fry? My LFS will take them if I grow them out to 5cm, but he'll only give me a store credit of AU$1 each, which I think is a bit mean seeing as he sells them for AU$6 each!

SnBMeg · Mar 30, 2007

Jozlyn said:
The picture looks like a ballon molly, what do you think?

What do you do with your fry? My LFS will take them if I grow them out to 5cm, but he'll only give me a store credit of AU$1 each, which I think is a bit mean seeing as he sells them for AU$6 each!

Naw, my mollies are balloons, and they look quite different, even from a much younger age than this one. Like I said, it's a "supposed" muppy, so it's possible that it could be something like a balloon/regular molly cross. There are definitely more muppy pics out there, which would help a lot, but they're really hard to find! lol From what I was reading about molly hybrids, it sounds like there's a lot of variation in how the fry look from a single spawn--some will look more like mollies, while others will look more like guppies or endlers or whatever the other parent was.

So far I've got enough fry to handle at home, but the next batch I'm definitely going to be looking into other options (including "letting nature take its course" in the aquarium.) Apparently there are several stores in my area that may take them, but I'm not going to be getting a lot of money for them. Adult mollies would probably go for more. I may very well just end up giving them to wherever will take them, just to keep the population at home down. I'm just going to take whatever I can get--my main goal is just to get them out of my house! If I can get a bit of store credit for them then that would be great, but I'm not going to get my hopes up for even that much.

SnBMeg · Apr 2, 2007

I just came across an excellent thread on this topic in the hybrid forum. One of the members here is working on breeding muppies. Go check it out! It's got pics!

http

/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=161596

Jozlyn · Apr 2, 2007

That was one of the most facinating reads I've had so far in here. I might just end up with some accidental Muppies or Gollies myself one day.

Rillan · Apr 2, 2007

That would explain alot. Awhile ago my female black molly died and the male was left with no partner. When i turned the tank one morning i saw him try and prod my female guppy. I just thourght it was my imagination playing tricks on me.