hamstermann

What are the molly subspecies and how do you tell them apart?

armadillo

Ever the pedant here: I wouldn't call them subspecies but races, as they do not all have an official taxonomical classification.

I believe the 'original' wild mollies are light grey, nearly transparent. They are slightly broader than the black molly shape.

In pet mollies, all sorts of colours can be found. Mainly: orange, black, yellow (called gold), brown (called chocolate), green/orange (called sunset) and white (called silver), and any speckled combination thereof (called dalmatian). So the colour does not really determine the race, but the morphology does.

Lyretail mollies were bred into showing uncharacteristically lyre-shaped tails.

There are also sailfin mollies, whereby the males display a much higher dorsal fin.

Swordtail molly males have, well, a swordtail.

Black mollies are often considered a race of their own by petshops. Their body shape is slightly finer and more elongated than the other mollies (except for swordtails).

You also have the balloon mollies, which were artificially selected for their scoliosis (a twist in the spine). They are really cute, and as far as mine is concerned, have a great temper, but they the result of quite cruel selection.

Of course distinctions can be very blurry as, being the same species, they can very easily interbreed.