Breeding for Wild Coloration in Mollies

[Yet Another Aquarist]

A while back, my dalmatian sailfin mollies produced 3 fish with wild type coloration.  I separated them out and watched them grow.  All three ended up being males.  Two are pretty awesome looking fish.  What would be the best way to breed more of their coloration?  My two thoughts are:

1.  Pick a female dalmatian in the hope that the dormant genes that are apparently in the group somewhere will strengthen and come out.

2.  Pick an unrelated gold sailfin molly because the gold color is closer to wild coloration than the black and white dalmatian color.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ken Burke]

Wait for the next batch, and pull 3 virgin females per male that are closest to the color you want.  Pull the fry and pull three more females per male and repeat.  

[Yet Another Aquarist]

So, continue with the dalmatians?  I haven't seen any others that are close in color.  Except for these 3 oddities, they throw black, silver, or mixed.  I guess that's why you pick 3 females, to increase the chances of hitting on the hidden genetics?

[gardenman]

Reverting to wild color is typically pretty easy. Often, if you just leave a large colony alone, they'll revert to wild coloration on their own over time. Just keep culling out any fry that don't match your desired color and eventually, you'll get all wild coloration. It's easier to just buy wild stock though. They're in many streams throughout the southern US.

By the way, a Bing search for "wild mollies for sale" brought up an Amazon ad for a "Women's micro thong string breakaway, adjustable very low rise thong." Uh, okay. I'm guessing someone named Mollie is pretty wild in her underwear choices and we got linked in that manner. If you're ever doing a search for "wild mollies for sale" using Bing, be forewarned, you may get some interesting results. The second result was for a "gold body chain jewelry sexy bikini rhinestone underwear". The third result was for a ghillie suit.  One of those is most definitely not like the rest. and none of them are the type of "wild mollies" I was looking for.

[Yet Another Aquarist]

Wow.  Good to know about the search.  

Thanks for the info.  You make a good point about buying wild stock.  The ancestors of these fish were nice looking sailfin mollies.  But they were aquarium trade fish, and I would guess that means likely hybrids.  Anything I could get from them would be wild colored domestic fish and not real wild fish.

Thanks! 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

There are several permutations for producing more wild type. 

@Ken Burkenailed it. Other idea would be obtaining some wild females I have seen some on Aquabid and Just Fin's - think Father Fish has wild type mollies. I also think that Greg Sage lists someone that has his strain of wild type mollies on his website. 

Good luck. Have fun. 

[Yet Another Aquarist]

Thanks!