Sexing a Molly

[Little_Orca]

I know that you should look at the anal fin when it comes to sexing livebearers. However, when I attempt to sex mollies, the anal fin liik the same: fanned. The dorsal fins, however, appear to be different. The females (at least the one that had the fry in my sister's tank) have a concave dorsal that connnets at all places and the males (again, at least the one in my sister's tank) has a dorsal fin that is different than the females (it curves back a little then connects to teh back.)

I think you can sex mollies this way, but was just wondering if anyone else knew about this.

Oh boy, if it is true, then I have 2 males per female. *g* That is ok though, the males are dosile and the female pushes them around.

 

[Annastasia]

If all your fish's anal fins are fanned, I can assure you, they are females. However, you may be able to sex them by the dorsal fin....but you'd have to a get a true male and female first, then compare to two fins. Except in sailfins...those are pretty easy to sex by the dorsal fin.

 

[Little_Orca]

Well, I do have a true female, since she did have a baby. I asked the person at the fish store for a male molly and they gave me the other dorsal variety (the one I described as beng for males). I just wondered because I was taught to always look at the anal fin, but if hte dorsal is an indicator too, then that would be a lot easier to ID them when the fish are "swimming for their lives" to get away from that green net.

 

[Annastasia]

Anal fin is still the most reliable way, and they way I would trust until I knew for sure. It's possible he gave you a different fin variety, or maybe just that batch had a funky kind of fin. All Mollies are different, so the fin might be different in every one. Also, if you had 2 males...I'd expect you would see a LOT more aggression then you are now, which leads me to believe you have all girls.