on one of trips to the petstore yesterday, I found these two beauties. I need some help figuring out what fin genes they may carry. The are your common RED balloon body mollies. They are JUMBO sized about as big a 50cent piece. There were about 50 or so of this fish in the tank..... ALL FEMALES absolutly no males. I inquired as to whether or not any males had come in... the sales rep told me no what was there was what they got in... So anyway.. being the fish nerd that I am... I sat there for 20 mins and stared for the oddities in the group and found these two ladies.... I chose them because they has "hi fin" dorsals, much like a hi fin platy... All the rest of the fish in the tank had normal, short rounded dorsals. Can anyone help me figure out what they could be carrying based on this dorsal fin being the way it is... I have never heard of hifin balloon bodies before...
BONUS! before getting home,one of them dropped about 50-60 fry in the bag. I am stoked! GOTTA LOVE THOSE LIVEBEARERS! ;)
on one of trips to the petstore yesterday, I found these two beauties. I need some help figuring out what fin genes they may carry. The are your common RED balloon body mollies. They are JUMBO sized about as big a 50cent piece. There were about 50 or so of this fish in the tank..... ALL FEMALES absolutly no males. I inquired as to whether or not any males had come in... the sales rep told me no what was there was what they got in... So anyway.. being the fish nerd that I am... I sat there for 20 mins and stared for the oddities in the group and found these two ladies.... I chose them because they has "hi fin" dorsals, much like a hi fin platy... All the rest of the fish in the tank had normal, short rounded dorsals. Can anyone help me figure out what they could be carrying based on this dorsal fin being the way it is... I have never heard of hifin balloon bodies before...
BONUS! before getting home,one of them dropped about 50-60 fry in the bag. I am stoked! GOTTA LOVE THOSE LIVEBEARERS! ;)
I thought they looked liked hifin platies but they ARE HUGE.. They were sold as balloon body mollies and the rest in the tank looked like the BB mollies I seen in the stores, just much larger... Could they be some cross between Mollies and Platies?
They may have just been a leftover from a previous shipment or something. Definitly Hifin 'Balloon' Platy's.
Unfortunately, 'balloon' or 'pot belly' forms exploit a deformity which includes what appears to be a painfully rounded spine. The shape also can compact the organs. It's especially hard on the females as they also have to carry fry and there can be birth complications. The fry are often deformed to a greater degree, requiring heavy culling or natural death soon after birth.
I don't mean to be a downer but we should be informed about these things. My Son loved the Balloon Mollies when he was younger and we had several before I found out how they were produced. Whether you decide to keep them or return them, good luck!
Mike ,No I don’t think they are a cross between mollies and platies.I only wish mollies had that beautiful red color ,like your platies have. You have some really nice hi-fin balloon platies with nice red color. Balloon platies and mollies do breed some young with defects, don’t let that stop you .All fish breed young with defects, some more than others. Last year I matted a pair of unrelated Angels together. They had 300 young on their first spawn, 290 of these young were belly sliders. I had to cull all except 10 .The next 2 spawns were fine, with maybe 2 or 3 belly sliders.If you go back on this forum you will find more info on keeping platies.
Yes, it's no question that those are Platies, not Mollies. Platies and Mollies are rarely if ever able to hybridize (I've never seen it) The type of fish (Platy, Molly etc.) is not determined by the size of the specimens. I've seen Platies 4 inches long and also 3/4 of an inch long. Recently, I've seen fish being mislabeled usually Mollies being sold as "Platies" or Balloon Swordtails also being sold as "Platies". Beware of people selling Albino Platies as Albino Platies are still rare and what they might have are Albino Mollies or Swordtails.
With experience and practice you can tell whether a fancy livebearer is a Molly, Platy, Swordtail or Guppy just by looking at its body or even the head.
Hey Darrell, right now on Aquabid, Gold-Pisces out of Bangkok Thailand has an Albino Calico Platy for sale. I really don’t like the picture they have ,doesn’t do anything for the fish.
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