Male Cremecicle Lyretail And Female Dalmatian Molly

[lmbtamadi]

My Male Cremecicle Lyretail looks like he is 'eating' something off my Female Dalmation molly and I know he's not trying to eat fresh dropped fry because she's not pregnant. I don't know what he's doing. I have had these guys for a little over a month, and she has not gotten pregnant yet, which concerns me as well. She's got little yellow blotches on her, which I think she was not a pure breed from the pet store, but it could be something else, I'm not sure. Can anyone tell me maybe what's going on? Any help would be great! Sorry no picture, I can't get her to stay still long enough to get a good picture.... :\

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Imbtamadi.
A male sniffing around the vent of a female is trying to determine if she is the same species and if she is fertile. If he comes to the conclusion that she is the same species, you should start to see courting activities.

 

[lmbtamadi]

thank you very much, er, Oldman
He's been doing this since I got them and I think he has tried to court her, possibly she's infertile? I also have another question, does it matter that they are different types of mollies (ie. lyretail and regular)? I just want baby mollies
Can platies and mollies breed? Anyways, my male mickey mouse platy and my female mickey mouse platy still haven't had babies yet either and I got them when I got the mollies (maybeee 2 months ago).
any ideas?

 

[OldMan47]

What you and I see as different types of mollies are all the same species. All of the common aquarium mollies are derived from a mix of two wild type molly species. The various crosses and back crosses that have gone into producing the fancy mollies we have today have also removed any sense of a particular species in the modern mollies. Any and all variations of aquarium type mollies will happily interbreed.
Mollies are a part of a branch of Poecilia that is distinct from the separate branch called Xiphophorus. The platy is in the same group as swordtails, as a Xiphophorus, but not the same one as mollies so breeding between them would be very unlikely. A molly is actually a closer relative to a guppy than it is to a swordtail or a platy. On rare occasions you will see claims of someone having a guppy/molly cross but only someone very new to the hobby will conclude that they have seen a platy / molly cross.