# Is this a Mollie?



## Manthalynn (Aug 23, 2008)

When I got this at Petsmart, it was in a tank with some completely different fish (like tetras of some sort) and the sales person didn't know what it was. I was pretty sure it was a mollie, but now I'm having doubts (just because I like to doubt myself). 

This is a Mollie, right? It's huge compared to my other mollies and even my male swordtails. It's easily 3 inches long and very bulky. But I love the color and haven't seen other mollies this color (at the chain stores, anyway).

Thanks for any help!


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## crazyfishlady (Nov 4, 2007)

It looks like a female swordstail but, I could be wrong. I have only had balloon mollies which is pretty much a deformed molly.


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## crazyfishlady (Nov 4, 2007)

Aha! I found a website that describes the difference between female mollies, platies, and swordstails. (http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/fish-id-help/24215-difference-between-platy-molly-swordtail.html)


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

It looks like a swordtail to me.


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## OldMan (Dec 30, 2008)

Looks like a very nice sword to me too. Actually it looks like one that is getting ready to start showing male characteristics soon.


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## Manthalynn (Aug 23, 2008)

If TOS says it's a sword, I'll believe it's a sword.

However, I'm very certain it's a female sword. You might be able to see from the above picture there is no gonopodium. That, at least, I can tell, especially on this fish.

My other female swords are tiny and I've never gotten sword fry. They're either eating them or the other females are too young yet (not the big one, she's bigger than the males).

Do female swords generally stay smaller or larger than male swords?

Thanks all for the comments!


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## hckygirl_31 (Dec 19, 2008)

it looks to me like a swordtail and kinda young at that


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## Manthalynn (Aug 23, 2008)

What about it makes you think it's young? I'm new to swordtails so I don't know what to look for.

The photo is deceiving as to how large this fish is. It's easily 3 inches long, and very bulky. It's large than the male swords I have that have already produced swords.

Also, both the male mollies and male swords chase it. But that could be a male "anything wearing a skirt" thing...

Thanks for the response!


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

The females easily get much bigger than the males. Old females over 3 inches sometimes turn into males, and their spiffy new swords make them well over 5 inches long, which is pretty cool. I've seen a few that were over 6 inches long, but not lately. Males that were always males don't get anywhere near that huge.


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## Manthalynn (Aug 23, 2008)

I've heard of this happening. I wonder if I have a grandma in my tank about to become a young buck? She's never had fry that I've seen, then again in the main tank, they'd be gobbled up fast. And we all know they drop them in the middle of the night when you can't rescue them.

I'm working on rescaping the tank with new soil and new plants (since the lovely MB outbreak) and hopefully will add more cover for the fry to survive if they so desire. I did recently find three silver fry hanging out near the top corner and quickly isolated them in my 10gal. They're doing great now.


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## doggydad38 (Jan 18, 2005)

Nice female Swordtail.
Tony


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## OldMan (Dec 30, 2008)

Manthalynn, that sword has a slight thickening of the leading edge of the anal fin and has a hint of thickening of the lower ray of the caudal fin. When I have seen this before in young large fish, ones that have never had fry, it has often been a precursor to seeing a full sword tail and gonopodium develop. That is exactly why I said it looked like it might be getting ready to change. It is very common for a male sword to develop late and not get its sex characteristics until it is much larger than a male would usually get. I have one that did it to me less than a month ago. I have a tank with nothing but virgin wild type green swords that I got when they were about the size yours is now. That was almost 6 months ago and none showed any sign of being male until I saw that same thickening in the fins of one a month ago. Now I have a very nice young male with a proper gonopodium and a developing sword that is about an inch long. Compared to the fish's size, it still looks like a tiny sword extension in the tail. 
I am sure you can see the details of your own fish better than I can from here, but it looked promising to me. BTW male swords are never as large bodied as females unless they are these late developers.


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## Manthalynn (Aug 23, 2008)

OldMan, thanks so much for the details of what to look for! That was great. And thanks for the comment on sexual dimorphism. I thought most livebearer females got bigger, which is why I thought this might be a female. But now I get to wait and watch this little late bloomer, I guess.

Incidentally, I have never had any of my swords drop fry. My females are quite small still, however but don't appear to be growing much. My LFS, which is a quarter mile down the street commented that while they often see Mollie and guppy fry in their sales tanks, they have never seen platy and sword fry. Does this mean something about our water source in my town? Their pH and DH is similar to mine.


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## OldMan (Dec 30, 2008)

When I lived in California, I lived at the southern end and most of our water came through long open aqueducts from places North and East of us. That water came in very hard and high in pH because the aqueducts were lined with concrete. If you are in Southern California, chances are that you are still facing hard, high pH water. My experience here is that my water is high pH and hard but not as much as you would see. I have not tried to raise platies or swords much in that kind of water so I can't know. Swords are much faster than mollies or guppies so they may just be seeing more predation in those tanks. It is hard to save many swords unless you have heavy plant cover in the birthing tank. 
This is what I mean by heavy plant cover, a clump of java moss. If you look closely, you will see a single fish in the top left corner of the picture. It is a Heterandria formosa.


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## Manthalynn (Aug 23, 2008)

I keep planning on including this in my tanks. But surprisingly, no one here sells java moss! I did find one place recently and got a clump but used it on all my ornaments. I'll have to get a bunch more and just let it float.

Whenever I've moved fat swords to the fry tank, they don't seem to do anything. I'm not sure if I'm moving them too early and they're aborting, or if they eventually eat them. I keep thinking perhaps I should leave the females in there, and just stick a male in there for a day. That way the female doesn't even have to be moved.

First order of business, purchase way more java moss.


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## Nagy07 (Jan 11, 2009)

wow nice moss, looks like its good and healthy, mines way lighter green


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