Well, my first generation of lyretail balloon bellies is nearing maturity. I think we will have fry soon. I rehomed all the fry with normal tails and separated a pair because I have blacks and creamsicles. Interesting note, however, the males are showing preference for the females of their own color. Odd. I have never noticed this before when I had many different colors. Now, I only have two. They seem to have segregated their pairings. While I feel I have somehow failed them as a parent for this behavior, hopefully I'll get better color fry. I digress...
Back to the point. They are cute! I am hoping to get a more moderate body than a true balloon- more like a dwarf platy. I can see now that some of the girls are getting really sway-backed. I think I'll pull them from the experiment. My favorite male has a nice little sail fin and I thought he was not going to be a lyre. I kept him because his tail had a really wide spread and his body shape was what I was looking for. Well, turned out to be the right decision because his lyre has formed now. I'll get a new pic of him and post it.
And while I don't have the luxury of tanks all over the place, I have enough tanks that will tolerate mollies that I can separate pairs as soon as they can be sexed to ensure a specofoc mating. My bettas really have molly buddies, although I don't have it on my signature. And the angels just might get a few tiny friends if they play nice. Once I see a sure gravid spot, I'll move momma back to the tank where the fry will do better.
Here are two of the females. Gosh, these pics are older than I thought. Their tails are longer and more developed now. I'll have to update their photos later.