Tag Archives: velifera

Poecilia velifera Blood Red

1. March 2022

The golden albino breeding form of the sailfin molly (Poecilia velifera) was created in the early 1980s. At that time it was celebrated as a sensation. Nowadays it is one of the most popular breeding forms of this molly. 

Particularly color-intensive golden sailfin mollies are called “Blood Red”. These animals are currently brought to the market in very good quality from Southeast Asia.

For our customers: the fish have code 432864 on our stocklist. Please note that we supply only wholesale.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer

Poecilia velifera Silver

6. April 2021

Silver mollies are among the most popular livebearers. Most of the silver mollies in the trade are a breeding form of Poecilia latipinna. Since the species Poecilia latipinna, P. sphenops, P. mexicana and P. velifera can be crossed and color characteristics and certain fin shapes (e.g. lyratail) are transferred to the hybrid young, the desired characteristics can be transferred to the parent species by backcrossing the hybrid young to the parent species. This is what happened with the silver colored sailfin mollies (Poecilia velifera), which, like sailfin mollies in general, are not easy but splendid fish for advanced enthusiasts.

For our customers: the animals have code 433034 on our stocklist. Please note that we supply exclusively to wholesalers.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer

Poecilia velifera Green

5. March 2021

From the sailfin molly, Poecilia velifera, which originates in the hot coastal regions of Mexico, there are mostly cultivated forms in the trade: Golden, chocolate, leopard, dalmatian, black, etc.. The “green” wild form is much rarer, although they are very colorful animals. All sailfin mollies on the market are bred ones.

The huge dorsal fin of the males is not bred to the sailfin molly, it is a species characteristic. It is not useful for anything – except showing off. Sailfin females are obviously totally into showing off (quite different from human females; who would have ever heard that a woman falls for a guy just because he looks good, drives a swanky car and has a fat watch on his wrist) and so the huge dorsal fin developed already in nature by the breeding choice of the females.

For our customers: the animals have code 432604 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesale.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer

Poecilia velifera “Dalmatiner”

8. January 2021

At least three species of mollies are the parent species of the numerous breeding forms that exist of these fish today: Poecilia sphenops, P. latipinna, and P. velifera. Possibly P. mexicana was also involved, but this is unclear, as this species was long considered a synonym of P. sphenops.

Some color and fin characteristics could only be established in the strains through species crosses, but others occur naturally in wild mollies. These include the gene for black coloration, which is found in many natural populations of all four species mentioned. In its maximum expression it leads to the so-called Black Molly. 

Very popular at present are the black speckled mollies, which are called “Dalmatians” after the dog race. In the wild, only one black speckled specimen occurs among thousands of normally colored animals, but the color morph, being inherited on only one allele and in both sexes, can be well established in selection breeding (when a morph is inherited from several alleles, possibly even on different chromosomes, breeding becomes complicated).

The largest of the Dalmatian mollies is the sailfin molly – and the most beautiful! 

For our customers: the animals have code 433053 (lg) and 433054 (7-8 cm) on our stocklist. Please note that we supply only wholesale.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer

Black Molly = Black Molly?

19. January 2019

Sometimes we also take a closer look at the everyday species; one tends to judge fish like the Black Molly in trade only according to the aspects: 1. are the fish healthy and stable? and 2. are they well grown? 

But Black Molly is certainly not the same as Black Molly. Depending on which wild species dominates in the respective strain – as is well known, Black Mollys were created by multiple crosses of different species, whereby the blacklings (Melanos) that already occur sporadically in nature were crossed into existing aquarium strains of Molly species – they sometimes differ considerably from each other.

Currently we offer e.g. Black Mollys from Sri Lanka, which are very similar to the wild species Poecilia latipinna. Especially beautiful here are dominant males, which have a red seam along the magnificent dorsal fin.

Another Black Molly form we get from Vietnam. It is closer to the species Poecilia sphenops and P. mexicana, the dorsal fin is much smaller than in the one mentioned before. The alpha males develop an orange border along the caudal fin, which is very attractive.

Not as Black Molly, but as Black Velifera one calls the splendid animals, which come after the species Poecilia velifera. They are clearly larger than the other Black Mollys. 

For our customers: Black Mollys from Sri Lanka have code 432003, those from Vietnam 432132 and black velifera 433004 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer