biggest thread on this website

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
Oct 15, 2009
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Northern Arizona
The females could have come pregnant from the breeder and been in a tank with blues or any colors/tail types. Although, from what I understand and have seen with my own platies, the females will give precedence to the sperm of a male who is present over the sperm they have stored.
 

Feb 27, 2009
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Although, from what I understand and have seen with my own platies, the females will give precedence to the sperm of a male who is present over the sperm they have stored.
I read somewhere (don't ask me where) that the 'fresh' sperm has a chemical in it that makes 'aged' sperm non-viable to a point, so that 'fresh' has a better chance of actually fertilizing the eggs.

Interesting. Explains how you can have an odd color pop out of seemingly nowhere with fish you've had for months. One of the 'aged' ones got through!
 

Thyra

Superstar Fish
Jun 2, 2010
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Yelm, WA
I did NOT find the thread that included the statement about being born pregnant I personally don’t see how it would be possible either. But, in the process of looking I did find a statement in a book I have written by David E. Boruchowitz who has been an aquarist for over 60 years and currently is the editor-in-chief of “Tropical Fish Hobbyist”:– “the females can be impregnated when a mere fry – a few days old!” (In reference to Poecillidae (Mollies). To me that means I wouldn’t even be able to tell which were males & which were females so any selective breeding would be impossible. To clarify this further, I am not interested in breeding fish - or anything anymore(lol), but I am always curious and an avid reader.
 

Newman

Elite Fish
Sep 22, 2009
4,668
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Northern NJ
very odd that he would say that. Poecillia can be guppies and endlers too i think. unless he only meant mollies. Because a male fry does not have a gonopodium to facilitate sperm transfer, and because an adult male mating with a fry, whose genital opening is the size of an invisible spec, is very unlikely, I cannot see how his statement can be true. He cant figure something like this out unless he had dissected his live fry and put their stuff under a very fine compound scope. I am not saying that he didn't because I am not him and i do not know him lol. It would be very strange if he had actual proof of this phenomenon. Does he give any proof in that article outside of just mentioning that bit of info?
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
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Just a little topic here i was walking by my fish tank and my pleco was floating at the top of my fish tank and i oped the top to see what he was doing and i touched him cause i thought he was dead and he splashed water all over me and my food!
Any idea why your pleco is always at the top like that? Is he hungry or something?
 

Thyra

Superstar Fish
Jun 2, 2010
1,891
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Yelm, WA
I would assume a man that does as much writing on the subject as he does, must have a lot of scientific resources. I would take it as more valid than anything just on the internet. His books are very straight forward and interesting.
 

Newman

Elite Fish
Sep 22, 2009
4,668
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Northern NJ
have you read some of them? especially the ones that talk about this phenomenon? if you have can you quote any proof that he gives in terms of his experiments or observations, or dissections, or anything that backs up his claim?
 

Thyra

Superstar Fish
Jun 2, 2010
1,891
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Yelm, WA
I just did quote what I read. I really can't afford to buy all of his books. This particular book did talk about mollies. I wasn't planning on going into the mollie breeding business, but it seems like other participates like Fishman are talking about breeding for color etc. As far as I was concerned it just a resource. I would assume people interested would do their own research instead of relying on this forum.
 

Thyra

Superstar Fish
Jun 2, 2010
1,891
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Yelm, WA
I do own the book and he has a couple of pages of resources,, but I would have to go to a library to research them all for specifics and like I said, I have no interest in breeding for fun or color. Fishman95 has come up with many ideas of what he wants to do - many of them very difficult or costly and I was just pointing out another one of the problems. I will admit, I have one silver molly fry that survived, he was only about 1/2 inch long when I observed him chasing and attempting to breed a full grown female. Whether he succeeded or not, I don't know, but he definitely was small enough and fit right up in there tightly! lol
 

Newman

Elite Fish
Sep 22, 2009
4,668
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Northern NJ
rofl
1/2" long? and already having a gonopodium? how old was he, do you remember? because if he was that small and he did in fact have a gonopodium, then he must have been stunted in some way because normally mollies get way more than 1" before they sexually mature, which usually takes around 3+ months.

I am making this topic boring though, so its ok if you dont want to answer me lol.
 

Newman

Elite Fish
Sep 22, 2009
4,668
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Northern NJ
highly doubting that he had a goonpodium...
It is quick, but you will clearly see the gonopodium fin rotate toward the opening of the female. it can even be pointed almost 180 degrees to the front if necessary lol.
if he has a straight fan-like female fin still, I do not think that he is sexually mature yet. As you can see i have a hard time understanding this because of the concrete facts i have observed in raising live bearers. though 1 year of observation vs that guy's 60+ years certainly doesnt amount to much :p
So i guess he has more credibility than most other livebearer sources.
I will have to ask someone like Jeff Hiller who breeds livebearers for a living if he has ever heard or seen something like this.
 

Thyra

Superstar Fish
Jun 2, 2010
1,891
0
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Yelm, WA
I would think his gonopodium would be relatively short, seeing as how he was so small and being white - sort of translucent - and me wearing bifocals doesn't help. My observation is in no way scientifically valid - he swooped in, kind of turned to his side and appeared to rub belly to belly with her so I assumed his actions had a sexually intent. lol. I haven't spent as much time observing that tank, because the new tank I started is about 2 feet from my computer where I spend most of my time, but I will try to share any unusual behavior with you.
 

Thyra

Superstar Fish
Jun 2, 2010
1,891
0
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Yelm, WA
Nay, I tried to get Misterking involved but so many of you people went back to school so I felt I was on my own. So far so good. It is a fish-in cycle, as was the first tank a little over 4 months ago - partly because of the lack of available pure ammonia and partly because of all the conflicting info about the fishless cycle. We may need to start a different thread?