Photo of a possible Limia vittata/Poecilia mexicana hybrid. The upper fish is a female Limia vittata. The bottom fish is a possible female Limia vittata/Poecilia mexicana hybrid. I have tried for years to produce a molly/Limia hybrid to no avail until maybe now. Why would I attempt this? ... Read More
Hybrids
Giant Green Sailfin Molly
Photo: A large male Green Sailfin Molly from four years ago and one of our breeders used in our attempt to create a giant molly. For about eight years, I’ve been working to develop a very large Green Sailfin Molly, which I creatively named Giant Green Sailfin Mollies (“GGSM” for short for the ... Read More
A Possible Female Guppy/Molly Hybrid
Photo: A possible Poecilia reticulata (guppy) x Poecilia mexicana, Campeche (molly) hybrid in front of a grid to show size. We found the fish in the above photograph January 15th of this year. Before I describe the fish and argue why I think it might be a hybrid, let me give you some ... Read More
Developing a Strain from a Single Fish
Photo: Two very young male Bronze Sailfin Mollies showing the improved coloration I selected for. They are too young to sport nice sailfins, but they grew up with large dorsals. As evidence of their youth, look at their gonopodia (anal fin), which are just beginning to develop. How many times ... Read More
Poecilia formosa – Amazon Molly
Photo: Two Poecilia formosa, Amazon mollies, collected from Coleto Creek at Highway US 77 in Victoria County, Texas. December 12, 2017, four of us plus two German Shepherds went collecting on Coleto Creek in Victoria County, Texas (see my blogs: ... Read More
Fancy Red Tuxedo Swordtails
Photo: Female Red Tuxedo Lyretail Swordtail. As is typical of our strain, females don’t have as bright red coloration as males. We’ve started working on adding three fancy fin types, lyretail, hifin, and plumetail to each of our commercial swordtail, maculatus, and variatus lines. I’m going to ... Read More
Blue and Giant Mollies
Photo: A male Giant Sailfin Molly showing his size against a one-inch grid. About four years ago, I wrote an article about my efforts to produce a blue molly. A molly blue enough for my tastes doesn’t exist. This blog will provide an update. First, I’ll summarize the article. In ... Read More
Developing a Hifin Plumetail Blue Opal Maculatus
Photo: A group of Blue Opal Maculatus Years ago I created what I called a Hifin Blue Opal Maculatus, as its name implies a maculatus-type platy. I wrote about creating this fish for Tropical Fish Hobbyist. To read the TFH article see: ... Read More
Fish Breeding, Introducing Recessive Gene
Photo is a male silver lyretail molly displaying a nice sailfin. This is the fish you want to create starting with a male silver sailfin molly and female green lyretail sailfin mollies Fish Breeding, Introducing Recessive Gene Recently I began a blog series on introducing new genes into a ... Read More
Introducing a Dominant Gene
Photo: A male Hifin Redwag Swordtail. I’m beginning a blog series on introducing new genes (technically alleles, but I’ll bow to common usage) into a xiphophorine population. In this blog I’ll discuss the mechanics of introducing a single dominant gene into a xiphophorine population. By the way, ... Read More