miraloma

I was at Petco yesterday and saw a ton of fry in the gold molly tank. The sales clerk said that they give away fry for free. Well, how can I pass up on free fish?! So I had her scoop up as many as she could. I think in the end, I got about 20.

When I put them in my breeding tank, I realized that they are not solid gold color at all. Most of them have some black on them and some are completely black. The mollies I saw in that tank were all solid gold color. None had any other colors on them.

My question is: is the gold color on molly a dominant or recessive gene? Perhaps the mommy just happened to have a little fun with a black molly? Obviously, I have no clue how long ago the gold molly were separated from the black, or if they ever were housed together at all.

Chief_waterchanger

It could be that they were in with other color strains, but it could also be that the parents of the adults they were selling were of different colors or mixed, themselves.

sirdarksol

The problem with the livebearers at most petstores, and especially the big chain pet stores, is that, at some point in the past couple of months, they likely have been in a tank with some other strain. Since a molly female apparently needs to only look at a picture of a male for a second in order to become impregnated, a few days is enough to introduce another color to the strain. And since a molly female can hold sperm for months, they can give birth to different colored fish after you've put them in a strain-specific tank.

biscotti

I have a gold dust molly who has had a lot of fry. The first two batches were after I had her for 3 months, all dalmation mollies. Then she started having orange babies after spending time with a mixed color male I have.

her babies start off light, and then they start getting spotty. Eventually some of her babies were all black with a few light spots. You just never know what you'll get. The little black guy in the picture below is her son. he used to be white. go figure.

What are you going to do with all those babies?

miraloma

Thanks for your input. It seems like most of you are implying that putting 2 gold mollies together long enough, they'll end up having gold fry. I like the gold one but I'm curious to see how these mixed fry turn out.

I plan to raise them and either give them away or sell them at a local fish aquarium auctions. They are currently in a tank where my shrimp and snail used to be. I want to keep the tank running for a little while to make sure I don't toss out any baby ones. Now it serves dual purposes.

KyWildFish

The issue of genetics has come up several times. I thought I would include some deeper knowledge on the matter to maybe clear up some confusion. Genetics are far more than one trait being dominate over another. Some traits are domionate to one gene, but not another. Some genes compete equally for presence over other genes. Still yet more than one gene can have multiple traits result from it. These traits are called "Incomplete Dominance" and "Codominance" respectively.

I will use flowers to explain further. In Incomplete Dominance the genes create a new trait all together. This can be seen with the example below.



This shows that the first generation (F1) has a pink flower resulting from a red and white parent. This type of genetics can show up in fish. The second generation (F2) has the possibility to yeild all three varieties based on genetic randomness. So a hybrid fish can yeild something that looks like neither parent.

The second trait Codominance is more interesting, especially when talking about Mollies as they are perfect examples. I will again use a flower as an example.



This is a Rhododendron that is an example of a pink and white parent. Both colors are expressed and the flower is multicolored. This happens in mollies, specifically in the Dalmation variety. This type of genetics can get pretty complicated when trying to produce specific results of F1 generations as the Codominance can yeild some interesting results.

Any questions I'd be glad to field and any corrections or further explanations I'd love to read. Hope this helps.

charleston.kevin

dang back in high school physical science lab lol