What's the big deal?

[Hybridfish7]

So I keep seeing videos of people in florida netting in areas with molly populations and flipping out about finding a dalmatian molly. Are dalmatian mollies a naturally occurring rare mutation or something? or is it just the fact that they're finding an aquarium fish in an American creek? I personally like the natural look of sailfin mollies, but if dalmatian mollies are in fact a semi naturally occurring mutation that's just adding to the list of fish I can put in naturalistic tanks and call natural when I can't find what I actually want.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Well....if you think about it, most fish are technically "natually occurring" albeit incredibly rare mutations. Otherwise we wouldn't have nearly the same amount of livebearer variation that we have at this time. Granted, natural selection favors fish that are less likely to be eaten.

Questions, however, do start to arise when you realize that mollies in the trade tend to be hybridized versions, usually of P. latipinna, velifera, and sphenops. I'm fairly certain that Dalmations are a mix of P. sphenops somewhere in there, since P. latipinna tend to be a green/brown fish.

 

[MatteoTheEnder22]

From what I know Dalmatian mollies are melanistic mollies the same as cow minnows which are melanistic gambusia so it can happen pretty frequently in the wild and those Dalmatian mollies reaching adulthood and producing offspring