Roatian Island Mollies

[goliadfish]

Re: Roatian Island Mollies

From the photos, this fish is one of the short-finned mollies, closely related to Poecilia mexicana. But, they will hybridize with sailfins! All mollies will hybridize. They should be maintained separately and no fry from any female ever exposed to a male of another species should be distributed as pure fish. Female mollies store sperm. She can have fry from a male she was exposed to months before. So, if you are offering fish as a particular species or collection, never allow the females to exposed to anything but their own males.

Don't get me wrong. Hybrids are fine, but should be identified and distributed as such.

There are numerous species of short-finned mollies while there are only three species of sailfins. The short-finned fish tend to be more aggressive and predatory than the three sailfins.

The three sailfin species are P. latipinna (our native molly), P. velifera (the Yucatan molly) and P. petenensis (the Lake Peten molly). The later two are tropical and do not over-winter here. P. latipinna is winter hardy in most of Texas. They look superficially similar with very similar color patterns and overall shapes. P. velifera is a massive, deep bodied fish. P. petensis is slimmer and grows a short black swordtail. P. latipinna is the smallest of the three species, but still much larger than most short-finned mollies.

In addition to the sailfins and short-finned mollies there is a unique molly, P. formosa (the Amazon molly), which is also native to Texas as well as Mexico. P. formosa have no males. The females mate with other male mollies but the sperm contributes no genetic material to the fry. The fry are clones of the mother. We collected some of these on the ALA Convention collecting trip to the San Marcos River. There will probably be a TFH article by Ted Coletti about them in the next few months.

We have all three sailfin species, which are maintained separately and pure. I will trade some of these for some of the Roatan Island mollies if anyone has some that have not been contaminated.

[Philbert]

Re: Roatian Island Mollies

I obtained my male and 3 females from someone else at the HLA auction some months back.
I have had multiple spawns from the big female, and gave away most of the females and spawn in the last few months.
All the fry looked exactly like the mother, the male was put in my males only tank right away.
I have one large female and several of her offspring, 3 males and some fry still growing.
While I have never intentionally put a male of any kind in my female tank before 3 weeks ago, I don't know for sure the female wasn't exposed to a Sailfin. I had moved the Roatan Island female before I put 2 resident males in my female tank.

She was dropping fry from a previous breeding for 4 months after I got her, but I gave away most of my Roatans.
If there is any possibility of obtaining a Green velifera male, for my mature pair of Roatans and several male and juvenile offspring, I would be overjoyed.
I got a pair of velifera at the HAS auction, but the gorgeous male became covered in a fungus 3 days after arriving here, and he died a few days later. I have a mature velifera female, and no male; and no other fish has become infected with any kind of fungus before or since...must have gotten infected before I brought him home.
Stuff happens, but I really want a breeding pair of velifera.
Please let me know if you have any interest in my Roatan Island Mollies.

[Philbert]

Re: Roatian Island Mollies

Pretty cool ... my large Roatan female is so gravid she literally looks like a balloon with fins. I have never seen her so large, at least 1/2 " wide; the male is my most interesting offspring from the juvie females I got at the same time as I got her, he has more color on his body and has a black pattern on his dorsal and caudal fins.
This could be interesting, I have several juvie males and females, now I'll have about 50 or so new babies to check out.
Anyone wanting a few Roatan Island Mollies, pm me and I can get you hooked up.