They will usually breed quite successfully with one another. You didn't mention colors and I  couldn't off hand predict what would appear if this color was bred to that color. I'm sure there are aquarists who can. People who have been in the Florida fish farming industry like author Ed Taylor certainly would be pretty good at that.

The Sailfin is a contribution of a couple of wild species - P. latipinna from the southern U.S. and perhaps Mexico's P. velifera. The lyretail pattern is a hobby-generated sport which has been around at least 45-50 years. Black mollies were generated by breeders somewhere around 80 years ago. (Black mollies are found in a number of places around the world. Those are descendents of hobby fish which have been released though. Remarkably they have survived predation.)

I think one species has been left out of the following list, but ancestors of our hobby mollies would include Poecillia velifera, P. latipinna, P. sphenops and P. mexicana - the last two of whom have evidentially been confused over the years. Messing around with them is ok, so long as their offspring are not released into the wild.

There is more info to be had if you were to Google {Guppylog mollies} {Guppylog molly species} and the various species names mentioned above or hobby names such as you mentioned or color forms - black molly, dalmatian molly, silver molly, golden sailfin molly, chocolate molly... Searching for balloon belly mollies will plug you in with an oriental tendency to develop egg-shaped fishes and sometimes spirited controversy among aquarists over when it is ok to reproduce "sports" of the original species with skeletal alterations.

The various national livebearer groups, their web sites and their e-mailing lists will also have some fascinating info from time to time. Sometimes a little link hopping is needed. Perhaps start at the links list at http://livebearers.org/ALAPublic/Default.htm

Here are a couple of Guppylog threads which may be of interest too.

Brood Records:
http://www.guppylog.com/story/2005/1/3/2168/70736

A Little on Crosses:
http://www.guppylog.com/story/2003/10/15/81621/667

Browsing the Guppylog Immediate Help Links may be useful too.

Hope this is of use to you. Please let us know what transpires if you cross those molly strains.

Thanks and all the best!
uncle scott

Most hobby mollies are a jumble of heritages. It (none / 0) (#1)
by unclescott (unclescott at prodigy.net) on Mon Aug 8th, 2005 at 13:40:49 CST
(User Info) Poster's IP: 68.253.196.52 [Edit User]

really is incorrect to speak of a specific hobby molly as a particular species.

They will usually breed quite successfully with one another. You didn't mention colors and I  couldn't off hand predict what would appear if this color was bred to that color. I'm sure there are aquarists who can. People who have been in the Florida fish farming industry like author Ed Taylor certainly would be pretty good at that.

The Sailfin is a contribution of a couple of wild species - P. latipinna from the southern U.S. and perhaps Mexico's P. velifera. The lyretail pattern is a hobby-generated sport which has been around at least 45-50 years. Black mollies were generated by breeders somewhere around 80 years ago. (Black mollies are found in a number of places around the world. Those are descendents of hobby fish which have been released though.)

I think one species has been left out of the following list, but ancestors of our hobby mollies would include Poecillia velifera, P. latipinna, P. sphenops and P. mexicana - the last two of whom have evidentially been confused over the years. Messing around with them is ok, so long as their offspring are not released into the wild.

There is more info to be had if you were to Google {Guppylog mollies} {Guppylog molly species} and the various species names mentioned above or hobby names such as you mentioned or color forms - black molly, dalmatian molly, silver molly, golden sailfin molly, chocolate molly... Searching for balloon belly mollies will plug you in with an oriental tendency to develop egg-shaped fishes and sometimes spirited controversy among aquarists over when it is ok to reproduce "sports" of the original species with skeletal alterations.

The various national livebearer groups, their web sites and their e-mailing lists will also have some fascinating info from time to time. Sometimes a little link hopping is needed. Perhaps start at the links list at http://livebearers.org/ALAPublic/Default.htm

Here are a couple of Guppylog threads which may be of interest too.

Brood Records:
http://www.guppylog.com/story/2005/1/3/2168/70736

A Little on Crosses:
http://www.guppylog.com/story/2003/10/15/81621/667

Browsing the Guppylog Immediate Help Links may be useful too.

Hope this is of use to you. Please let us know what transpires if you cross those molly strains.