Is this a molly, or a crossbreed?

[Bullsnark]

This is listed as a red leopard lyre twin bar molly and I was wondering if anyone knew if this was a molly, or a hybrid of a molly and something else like a swordtail. I have been watching videos, and no molly that I have seen has those twin long dorsal and ventral fins. 

Edited September 13, 2021 by Bullsnark

[Tihshho]

Looks to be a selectively bred sailfin molly to me. Someone else might have more information. As for a hybrid between a molly and a swordtail, I'm not sure those species are genetically compatible to hybridize, so my take is that this is more of a molly variant hybrid. You can find the tail portion on some standard black molly's just not to that length, and the dorsal is fairly standard for a sailfin,

[BlueLineAquaticsSC]

I agree looks like a lyretail sailfin molly to me that was probably selectively bred

[PineSong]

The length of the lyre points on the tail may be something that increases with age, and that could be a very mature specimen. The dorsal fin looks normal for a sailfin, to me.

[Bullsnark]

On 9/13/2021 at 8:51 PM, PineSong said:

The length of the lyre points on the tail may be something that increases with age, and that could be a very mature specimen. The dorsal fin looks normal for a sailfin, to me.

Do you think it would be past the point of breeding?  I love the look regardless, but I would love to breed them as well 

[PineSong]

On 9/13/2021 at 10:22 PM, Bullsnark said:

Do you think it would be past the point of breeding?  I love the look regardless, but I would love to breed them as well 

I do not know the answer to this one, but I would give it a try if you have the fish already. If you're buying from a breeder, you might ask how old he is and if you fear he's too old, you could start by breeding some of his offspring instead.

[Bullsnark]

On 9/13/2021 at 9:41 PM, PineSong said:

I do not know the answer to this one, but I would give it a try if you have the fish already. If you're buying from a breeder, you might ask how old he is and if you fear he's too old, you could start by breeding some of his offspring instead.

No it’s at a LFS near a family members house.  I don’t actually have any fish places within about 2 hours of me. I follow their Facebook and message the owner when they post something I want and he holds it for me until the weekend. 

[PineSong]

On 9/13/2021 at 10:49 PM, Bullsnark said:

No it’s at a LFS near a family members house.  I don’t actually have any fish places within about 2 hours of me. I follow their Facebook and message the owner when they post something I want and he holds it for me until the weekend. 

Gotcha. Then it's probably not an old fish. I'd give it a try.

[PineSong]

On 9/13/2021 at 10:49 PM, Bullsnark said:

No it’s at a LFS near a family members house.  I don’t actually have any fish places within about 2 hours of me. I follow their Facebook and message the owner when they post something I want and he holds it for me until the weekend. 

Actually, hang on a minute--I'm reading an article posted in the thread about platy breeding and it says that lyretail males cannot breed because the additional length of their fins makes the gonopodium not work.  Not sure if that's true for mollies, too, so  you might want to research that. This article says you make lyretails by breeding a lyretail female to a normal male. Here's the article:

https://ephieslivebearers.weebly.com/uploads/5/7/7/9/57793349/practical_platy_genetics_1.0.pdf

[WhitecloudDynasty]

It's a very nice quality molly, he looks great and will make a great breeder.

On 9/13/2021 at 11:09 PM, PineSong said:

Actually, hang on a minute--I'm reading an article posted in the thread about platy breeding and it says that lyretail males cannot breed because the additional length of their fins makes the gonopodium not work.  Not sure if that's true for mollies, too, so  you might want to research that. This article says you make lyretails by breeding a lyretail female to a normal male. Here's the article:

https://ephieslivebearers.weebly.com/uploads/5/7/7/9/57793349/practical_platy_genetics_1.0.pdf

This is true if the gonopodium is longer, the fish in the picture is fine

[PineSong]

On 9/13/2021 at 11:39 PM, WhitecloudDynasty said:

It's a very nice quality molly, he looks great and will make a great breeder.

This is true if the gonopodium is longer, the fish in the picture is fine

Thank you for clarifying, I know you know what you are talking about!

[gardenman]

I wouldn't worry about age too much for a molly either. A pet store in Berlin, NJ many years ago (maybe 40 years now?) had a pair of retired breeder sailfin mollies that were among the most gorgeous fish I've ever seen.  The female was around 8" long and the male was pretty close to that with a huge sailfin and both fish were just gorgeous. The male didn't know he was a retired breeder as he was flashing and displaying to the female like crazy.

I talked with the store owner who said he saw them at his wholesaler and couldn't resist them. He'd bought them cheap but put a high price tag on them as he didn't want to sell them. (The price was something like $69.99 for the pair.) The story he'd been told was that the Florida breeder was getting out of the business and sent off his breeders along with his last batch of young fish to the wholesaler. The breeders were sent to the wholesaler for free and were a once in a lifetime type of fish to find for sale so he grabbed them. They'd been pond-raised their whole life. The store owner wanted to keep them for himself but his wife insisted they had to be put on sale, so he lied to her about how much he'd paid for them and put a really high price on them so no one would buy them and he could keep them. 

Even though they were huge and retired, the male was still more than actively trying to breed, so age shouldn't be a huge issue.