Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

[Philbert]

Does anyone else have Black Lyretail Sailfins? I am curious...
My female spawned about a month ago, and her fry are just starting to develop. About half have obvious lyretails, and more than half are a mottled grey and black. Is this a normal thing, pure black being hard to get?
I like the color, it looks interesting...but I've never seen the color online or in an LFS. Is the black going to deepen later, or is this a case of what you see is what you get?

[Spot86t]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

I have a pair, but she has yet to drop any fry even though I've had them for several months.  

My non-lyretail dropped about 20 on the first batch, about half were black, the rest were like dalmations but with more black than white.  I've heard that's common, black being a difficult color to dependably breed.

[Philbert]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

The male was a black Lyretail, and none of the fry have any white like my many Dalmation fry did; they are either very dark, hopefully black, or a deep grey with black mottling. Not like my Marbled, or my Dalmation.
I have a Black Sailfin pair, as well, and the female has never gotten pregnant. I just put her with the Black Sailfin male again, and we'll see.
I have a year or so old Female, Green Mottled (unusual coloration, I don't know what to call her), and she has never gotten pregnant. I guess some females are sterile, or just play hard to get.
Maybe Islander knows; if he doesn't check in on this thread, I'll send a pm.

[Philbert]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

The Black Lyretails are 3 weeks old now...and are really cool!
Some have the greatest lyretails, and some are getting darker.
Others are grey with a lot or a little black "splotching", but most have a real high sailfin already. I hope the males have a really developed sailfin when they mature.
These are from Goliad Farms, and are outstanding fish.
I've noticed there is a big quality difference in Sailfin Mollies. I was recently at FRII and Fish Gallery; the Goliad Farms (I assume) mollies at FRII were big, beautiful fish, even though I don't care for some of the colors.
They had some that were the usual anemic looking small beat-up Sailfins that probably come from Asia, like the ones I saw at FG. Like they were going to die soon...but I think that is just how most LFS Sailfins are.
All my fish, especially the Greens I got from Islander, are beautiful, colorful and healthy looking. No narrow bodies, with strong colors, and active healthy fish.
The Sailfins at FG had sailfins that looked as if someone had glued them on...I think that someone experiencing the upper level of quality Sailfin  would want to have some in their community; I am beginning to realize why there is such a general lack of respect towards the Sailfin Molly as a serious aquarium resident.
I am very lucky to have had such good sources of stock, and my Sailfins are outstanding!
Spot...I still have Sailfin envy for that great pair of Silvers you got at the auction way back when at FRII!
That's where I got my 2 pair of Black Sailfins.

[Spot86t]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

I'm still waiting for that pair to pop out some fry.  Don't know if they're sterile or what.  One would think by now I'd have over 100 of the things!

[Philbert]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

Are they together all the time?
I don't know why these things are so hard when you wanna breed them, but leave a bunch of them together and everyone gets knocked up!
I have a beautiful Black Sailfin female, 2"+, who came with a male, and who I've put with him twice for 3-4 days a few times...no fry.
On the other hand, the Black Lyretail I got at the same time has had 2 spawn, and is getting done again as we speak. I'm gonna leave the 2 Black Sailfins girls with the male for 4-5 days in the Elvis Memorial Love Chapel (my 20 gallon) and give it another shot.
My largest Green Spotted female has never had any fry, and I've had her with an aggressive male for a few months before, as well as other males a few times.
Although...I put her with a large Green male a few days ago and she was giving him the glad eye; rubbing him and following him around and stuff. Maybe she wasn't impressed by the other males; I'll see.
Maybe we should swap our Silver/Platinum females and see if different males might make a difference.
Sorta like lend-lease...

[Philbert]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

Well. the Black Lyretail are coming up on 2 months now, and growth is excellent...I have a very ecclectic mix of Sailfins growing in my tanks.
Several have the most impressive lyretails, and several of those are black. Several more are black with grey splotching as I mentioned before.
I have quite a few without lyretails at all, grey with a little black mottling to almost completely black with a little grey. Some of them have the "almost lyretail" tips on their tails, not the usual rounded Sailfin tail.
All are beautiful fish...but I want Black Lyretails! Looks like I will have 8-10 Black Lyretails, and many "this and that" colors. I assume breeding back to a Black would produce a higher ratio of Black Lyretails, but I gotta wait a lotta months to see if this is so.
I put my large Black Sailfin female with my proven breeder Black Marbled male, and he gave it his best shot. The female ran away the whole time, so I guess she is not gonna have any fry for me. Some girls just don't wanna cooperate!
She is sooo black, and at least a year old...what a shame.
I got a list for Santa next Christmas, for sure...maybe he'll have better luck getting me Black fry than I'm having! :)

[Spot86t]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

I may take you up on a lend-lease offer.  None of my lyretails have produced squat except for my greens, and they're taking forever to grow.  Maybe a new tailfin shimmying would prompt some production....    Must remember to light a fancy candle and set a chilled bottle of vino and glasses within tanksight....

I will be shedding a god deal of my non-lyretail mollies - except for maybe my prettiest male green with the orange edge on his sail.  He's quite spectacular, and I'm not sure what breeder he came from.  I got him at Fish Mart about a year ago.  He was the only one they had with the orange edge - and they had 2 tanks loaded with green sailfins.

[roberte]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

xxx

[Spot86t]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

That may explain why there is one green youngster in the tank.  I've never had any others in the black molly tank.

[islander]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

Good morning Roberte,

This is excellent information on black mollies,   I need to read it a couple times to take it all in.  Where are you located?  I believe you are the one that gave us the history of the veiltail & guppy tail mollies.  Do you have any?  I know a breeder in Calf. that is working on some and hope to get a little of his stock by the ALA Conference this May in San Antonio.  Will you be there?  What do you know about breeding the black mollies with blue bodies?  Thanks, ken

[Philbert]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

Thanks for the insight, roberte.
My 2 pair of Black Sailfins (1 pair was Lyretail) from Goliad Farms are deep velvety Black, the females only have a bit of white tip on the fins and some clear areas on the fin edges.
They have jet black eyes.
None of the fry were born green, all were black. As they grew, many took on the grey and black coloration, and as you described many did darken with time. Now, I have a few grey with a little black mottling, 50/50 grey and black, and black in a few.
Some of the Lyretails are outstanding, some fry have the triangular tail which seems to become more lyretail as they grow, and about 40% have standard rounded Sailfin tails.
I have a few fry with lyretails as wide as they are long, awesome looking fry. They also have long belly fins, and the anal fin is quite long on most. Non lyretails have normal finage.
They are now at 2 months, so I am waiting to see what they do at 3 months. They are my most interesting fry.

[roberte]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

xxx

[Philbert]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

I thought the silver eyes in the site photos were from the camera flash, 'til now. Even the greyest fry have jet black eyes.

The grey they have is a deep shiny grey, unlike any other color I've seen on a Sailfin before. I have had many "green" fry, and this is a deep shiny silvery grey. The fins on the lyretail babies are more like fancy Goldfish fins, very interesting fry.
The Lyretail were very different from the non lyretail pair, more narrow in the center and with a streamlined look. The Black Sailfin pair are massive in the body, the female and the Male both look pregnant.lol
The Black is a very deep velvety black on both pair; unfortunately the male Lyretail took to the corner of the tank, and passed away, a week after I got him. The female has had 2 spawns since then, but the non lyretail won't get bred; she runs away from the Black male and my fairly agressive Marbled male.

[roberte]

Re: Black Lyretail Sailfin Mollies

xxx