# Molly/Platy Breeding?



## Pandapop

While checking out the AqAdvisor and filling up the stock in my tank on the calculator, there was a warning for Platies being in the same tank as Mollies. 

_"Warning: Platy is not recommended to be with Molly due to interbreeding possibilities."_

Is this actually a bad thing? Will the fry be deformed, or will they just be Molly/Platy crosses? So far all the female Platies I purchased are already pregnant from whatever Platy male(s) they were with at the store, and my Mollies are also pregnant from store Molly males. So if I need to remove the Platies or Mollies, I won't have to worry about them being impregnated by the opposite species. 

If it's just a cross-species with no physical deformities, I'll leave them as is. I just don't want to have to cull the poor fry because of a mistake that _I myself_ made.


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## OCtrackiepacsg1

I've never heard of imbreeding before.


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## guppyart

the ones I have known of is platies with swordtails, and guppies with mollies.
I myself have never heard of platies and mollies.


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## PaulLamb

It is unlikely that a platy/molly hybrid is possible. Platies are in the genus Xiphophorus along with swordtails, while mollies are in the genus Poecilia along with guppies.

Hybrids are common between platies and swordtails, and hybridization is often used to transfer genes from one species to another by selective breeders. They sometime have deformities or higher rates of sterility and cancer than pure lines.

Hybrids between guppies and mollies are also possible (male guppy w/ female mollie is most common), but even though they are both in the Poecilia genus they are not very compatible. The problem with these hybrids is that they are virtually all sterile males, and they tend to be prone to developing cancer.

So to get back to your question, platies and mollies might decide to "get it on", but they wouldn't produce any offspring. In the one-in-a-million chance that it did, the fry almost certainly would not survive.


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## TheOldSalt

Wow.

That Aqadvisor site has some goofy into on it.

No, platies & mollies cannot interbreed.
Unless...

There is ONE kind of molly, which you'll never see for sale, called the Amazon molly, which can breed with any other livebearer. This species is parthenogenic, being a self-cloning fish that gives birth to it's own clones. However, it still needs to mate to stimulate the process, but it doesn't matter what it mates with as long as it mates. Bizzarro.

Since you almost certainly do NOT have Amazons in your tank, you may freely mix them with all the platies you darn well please.


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## Pandapop

I certainly don't have any Amazon Mollies. xD

So thanks for answering the question! None of my male Platies have been chasing after my female Mollies, or vice-versa. They seem to stick to their own species. For now, anyway... ahahah. At least I won't have to worry about fry.


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## yhbae

Pandapop said:


> I certainly don't have any Amazon Mollies. xD
> 
> So thanks for answering the question! None of my male Platies have been chasing after my female Mollies, or vice-versa. They seem to stick to their own species. For now, anyway... ahahah. At least I won't have to worry about fry.


I would have sworn that I read this info somewhere but I can't find it so may be I was wrong after all... 

I'll remove this dependency for the next build.


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## emc7

Dino has Amazon mollies. Way cool. But kind of a plain-looking fish.


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## katfemme89

I have platies and mollies together, and my male molly is ALWAYS chasing around my female platies with his gonopodium LOL. Yet he seems completely uninterested in the female mollies I put in there for him. So strange.

Well, I'll let you know if I get any hybrids.


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## yhbae

katfemme89 said:


> I have platies and mollies together, and my male molly is ALWAYS chasing around my female platies with his gonopodium LOL. Yet he seems completely uninterested in the female mollies I put in there for him. So strange.
> 
> Well, I'll let you know if I get any hybrids.


Doh does this mean if you have 2 male mollies and 1 female platy, that female will face high levels of stress? Yikes, this will be interesting to implement in the app... :shock:


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## emc7

> does this mean if you have 2 male mollies and 1 female platy, that female will face high levels of stress?


 I think its likely. Males will always take the next best thing.


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## jaunypic

I have heard all off the facts and still i am weary.. I had a so called molly and a sword have an offspring off about 15 that made it until adulthood. they both have the strangest traits of both.. I call it a sailedfinned sword... see the pic


>


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## yhbae

I've only removed interbreeding possibility between platy and molly. So molly and swordtale will still produce this warning... So you have this offspring?


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## PaulLamb

jaunypic said:


> I have heard all off the facts and still i am weary.. I had a so called molly and a sword have an offspring off about 15 that made it until adulthood. they both have the strangest traits of both.. I call it a sailedfinned sword... see the pic


You should go buy a lottery ticket, dude. I've researched this extensively and was unable to find anything reliable to make me believe that such a cross is possible. I've seen some pictures of really awesome looking fancy guppy-sailfin hybrid males, but never a swordtail-sailfin. Any chance you can fix the link to that pic? Also, have you tried crossing them back to either molly or swordtail to see if they are sterile or not?


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