# Molly Colors



## Frogprincess

I'm new to livebearing fish, or, really, any kind of fish breeding. When my koi outgrew their tank a month ago, I decided to go for some smaller fish and picked out three mollies and two platy. I got them home, acclimated to the tank, and I kept an eye on them for the next week or so, making little changes to Ph and temperature as I went. 
Well, my dalmation molly swelled up like a balloon and about two weeks into having them, she dropped around 15 fry. I didn't realize at first that she was pregnant, and didn't realize that she had given birth until I was cleaning the sides of the tank and found a tiny baby fish swimming around the bottom of the tank. I bought a breeder net to keep them in for a little while and they grew quickly. At about two and a half weeks old, they've tripled in size and I've just released them back into the main tank now that they're big enough to get away from the other fish.

Now, all of that leads up to a question about molly color genetics. My dalmation gave birth, but she was pregnant coming from the store so I don't know what she bred with (she was in a tank with other dalmations and black mollies). Most of her babies seem to be dalmation as well, except two of them are very dark. I don't think they're black, but they're a very, very dark brown-gray color and don't seem to have any spots. Reverse of that, there is one who seems to be solid silver-white. Is this normal? I know that dalmations are bred from mixing two different molly colors, so do they give birth to fry who might be solid? 
I'm expecting her to give birth again by the middle of August, I can already see her stomach swelling up again. My other female, a black, doesn't seem to be pregnant, though, despite being in a tank with a male (cremesicle lyretail). I'm assuming the dalmation is just dropping more babies from the same batch of sperm she got at the pet store. Is it normal for mollies not to breed? Or, if I'm just mistaken in my observation, does anyone have any idea what a black-cremesicle molly crossbreed would look like? I imagine a black-and-orange dalmation.

Thanks in advance for the help!


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## Pandapop

I had a silver molly that has given birth to a red-eyed creamsicle, solid silvers, marbles and even a black baby. My black molly gave me silvers, marbles and gold-dust babies. 

Since mollies (like most other livebearers) breed so prolifically, it's nearly impossible to determine the genetics of any single individual. Even mollies sold online or in stores that are labeled 'gold-dust', 'silver', etc; can throw different colored offspring despite what they are called. Two black mollies can produce creamsicles and silvers, or a silver and black can get you a red dalmatian. 

A black and creamsicle molly pair could give you anything. It's completely random in most cases, but because black is a more dominant color trait, I would expect most of the babies to be either solid black or marbled with a bit of a 'gold-dust' look to it.


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## Frogprincess

Wow, really? At least I'll have a very colorful tank. Thanks for the help.


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