color changing molly

[fishboy]

My molly, Maximillion, was a pure silver molly when a bought him a few monthes ago. Now he's developing black spots andthe upper half of his body is developing a brown tint. Is this normal? I can guess he is of of silver and black spotted decent and is just beginning to show his heritage but the brown has me puzzled

[sbsociety]

Yeah, mine turn brown too, usually close to delivery. (is that one a female?) And yes, it's most likely got some kind of dalmation or something along the heritage line... But I have no idea why so late in life. Mine get visible spots by about a week or so, at under a half inch still. By one inch, I usually see full color. Hmm... I didn't help much did I. lol.

[lalo]

the same happened with my "Silver Lyretail Molly" she started developing black spots and it turned out that she is in fact a "Dalmatian Lyretail Molly", she was completelly white like 2 months ago btw, so, yes there are some mollyes with a mix of many colors

[doggydad38]

Spotting is normal pigmentation for Mollies. Even with all the different color varieties that now exist, the wild tendency towards some body spots still shows through.
Tony

[fishboy]

Maximillion is a male and is doing fine alone in his 10 gallon so i shouldn't be worried about this. i may want to get him some other mollies(maybe even a female) or other fish. what goes well with mollies?

[Hamm35924]

well if you dont mind having a bunch of fry, lots of female mollies. that should make him one happy male.

[fishboy]

I don't want to sound cruel but i don't want babies so either i'll let nature take its path, the filter will get them if they aren't strong enough, or i may cull them. What else goes good with a molly since i don't want to be a fry killer. Can i add a female feeder guppy(no fancys though I'm low on cash and want to keep it simple)? Or will it interbreed with the molly as they have the same first latin name like platys and swordtails. Also would a small tetra school work, maybe black neons for they survive in small schools, if i added some hiding spots for them? I had him with a dwarf gourami but it mysteriously died last night so he's all alone now after his platy friend passed when the gourami killed him. i can't get anything expensive as were moving the tanks to Jersey for the summer and my mom doesn't want any new fish in the fear that they'll die but if they cost $0.12 like feeder guppies I think i can pull it off.

[fishboy]

the molly died . I will restart the tank in the fall

[sbsociety]

Very sorry