# Molly Platy Hybrid Babies



## prinmel

So I have read everywhere that mollies and platies cant breed, well i had babies a while ago (before I found out that they cant breed) in my tank and i had swords, mollies and platies. Well I had some orange with black spots mollies male and female, male and female Dalmatian mollies some other platies and a red wag platy female and male. My female wag started to fatten up and I knew she was pregnant and the molly males were all over every single female in the tank no matter the species. She started having her babies so i quickly put her in a breeders net and caught the babies in the tank and put them in the net. I watched her have all the rest of her babies and they were all tiny and orange. As they grew they stayed orange, I thought they would turn red to match her. Then they started getting little black spots exactly like the Dalmatian mollies. Now some of the spots have turned into all black areas on two of them. I realize that females can hold sperm and all that but I just don't see how they couldn't be hybrids because of the spots. Anyone else have this happen, even though it's supposed to be impossible?


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## navigator black

That is a standard form platy - black spotting is really common. They used to be sold as 'salt and pepper' platies, and are probably the result of sperm from another platy - I notice you said "some other platies and a red wag platy female and male". What are the some other platies?
Shape wise, that's a classic platy - no molly there. I always prefered that domestic form to the red wags - good result!


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## prinmel

The other platies were sorta blue iridescent white with micky mouse tails.. they had babies too and one came out with a spiked tail fin instead of fan. It might be a mix of some kind also because it has a black stripe on it. Maybe swordtail??


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## jrman83

Females do hold sperm up to six months or so. You can get a female livebearer and it be all by themselves for a while and then have babies. Swordtail fry will not have a spiked tail like that and that may be some form of deformity.


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## prinmel

Yes, defiantly a deformity, I have had many batches of swords and they don't look like that. I am not sure what happened with his tail, it was normal for a long time then started to grow into the spike. Poor little guy not sure if he will make it like that, pretty slow swimmer.


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## navigator black

That's a deformity.
All of the aquarium store Xiphophorus (swords, platies and variatus) are hybrids - mixes with each other. The least hybridized is variatus, but it has been used to add its oranges and reds to platies (maculatus) and swords (helleri). Many swords are smaller than wilds (5-6 inch fish) with platys and variatus genes, and often higher bodied from platy crosses. You can't honestly call a pet shop livebearer by a latin name - they are artificial hybrids rather than biological species now. 
To complicate matters, it looks like X alvarezi swords from southern Mexico were mixed with central Mexican helleri to complicate the swordtail genetics more, These fish wouldn't meet in nature.
So you get a lot of weird genetics popping out, and forms like your little spotted guys appear by surprise. A male can fertilize a female in the pet store, and the babies will keep coming for months, as a single fertilization produces several broods. The females keep the sperm packets alive internally and refertilize themselves, as jrman pointed out.


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## RyLuci1021

maybe one of your swordtails mated with your platy. I'm pretty sure they can cross breed, but a platy and a molly I'm sure can't.


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## Delgadoa

My platy breed with a molly and gave birth to over 30 fry. Two weeks later the same molly breed with another molly and gave birth to over 30 fry as well. HYBRIDS ARE POSSIBLE.


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## skiffia 1

your molly was already graved it cannot HYBRID with a platy


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## BabyGirl77

A molly and platy cannot breed. It was most likely the platy and sword that bred. Mollies and guppies can breed though. But not molly and platy or molly and sword.


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## emeraldking

True! Those spotted platies are just platies. Or mmaybe a hybrid between swordtail and platy. Spotted platies are ver common. But even if ther were no other spotted platies or swordtails in the neighbourhood, even the female could've got genes for spots herself. So, with a lot of livebearers if you don't know their genetic history, don't just rely on their phenotype.


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## emeraldking

jrman83 said:


> Females do hold sperm up to six months or so. You can get a female livebearer and it be all by themselves for a while and then have babies.


It's even like this that a female can even hold sperm for over a year... Not just a couple of months. This is a mistake which a lot of people make.


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## Karagamer0715

I'd like to say that I know so many people say mollies and platys can't breed but my friend had a 20G with only molly females and a platy male. They were virgin as they were too young to have bred when he first bought them. That male platy was all over them molly girls once they got bigger and before long they were having lots of fry but quickly eating majority of them. A few survived and one of the fry looked like the platy but grew to be slightly smaller size and shape of a molly. I would have taken a picture but sadly the pretty girl died after several months when they had an outbreak of ick Molly and Platy hybrids are indeed possible and it took me seeing that girl to realize that. I am currently attempting to breed molly/platy hybrids of my own now since seeing her as well as trying a calico swordtail male with them. Fingers crossed for some more amazing babies. I like to believe some things are possible in breeding fish that some people have just said are impossible, don't believe it til you have tried it and proven yourself that it is impossible.


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## emeraldking

Karagamer0715 said:


> I'd like to say that I know so many people say mollies and platys can't breed but my friend had a 20G with only molly females and a platy male. They were virgin as they were too young to have bred when he first bought them. That male platy was all over them molly girls once they got bigger and before long they were having lots of fry but quickly eating majority of them. A few survived and one of the fry looked like the platy but grew to be slightly smaller size and shape of a molly. I would have taken a picture but sadly the pretty girl died after several months when they had an outbreak of ick Molly and Platy hybrids are indeed possible and it took me seeing that girl to realize that. I am currently attempting to breed molly/platy hybrids of my own now since seeing her as well as trying a calico swordtail male with them. Fingers crossed for some more amazing babies. I like to believe some things are possible in breeding fish that some people have just said are impossible, don't believe it til you have tried it and proven yourself that it is impossible.


Yes, this is an old thread. But I do like to reply on this for a cross between a molly and a platy is not possible. Not because they're of two different genera but because their sexual organs are not compatible with another. Technically they can not mate in a natural way. But do know that female mollies are already sexual mature at a very young age. So, also small young female mollies can mate when they're 6-8 weeks old. But they don't have to become pregnant once they've mated. For the female can store sperm packets of a mating for over a year without a problem and will decide by herself when she releases the stored sperm packets from the folds of her fallopian tube. I assume that Karagamer0715 didn't know this. The fry she/he found muist have been a molly fry. And again, their sexual organs are a 100% not compatible with another.


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