Can Someone Please Help Me Id This Strain?

[LauraFrog]

Mum dragged me out shopping again today so I hightailed it to the LFS. I could not believe what I saw. This little beauty was lurking in a tank with a few obnoxious swordtails and some barbs. Lucky I spotted her! I couldn't see her very well and I didn't know whether to buy her or not, because I have some half-grown fry I want to keep and if I keep them all my tank will be overstocked. I need another tank so bad but I have no room. (I could find room... but my rents won't hear of it.) I'm glad I did buy her though, I've got her in some proper light and she's stunning.

Anyway, I have never seen a platy like this before. She appears to be a dark base, in lowlight she's almost black. She has grey and green mottling on her body and blue, green and yellow iridescent scales. I have a fish with green iridescent scales, and a fry with blue ones, but I have never seen yellow before on a platy and I have been led to believe that yellow, orange and red i.s. on a platy are fairly rare. I hope it breeds true; she is probably pregnant but of course I have no clue who the father is.

These pictures are relatively clear. They're all small. My camera doesn't like focusing on small things, I had to photograph half the tank and then find the platy in there and cut her out from the rest. The background sucks, the tank hasn't been cleaned yet this week. I'm doing it tonight. Halo's head is in one of the photos and her tail is in another. That molly HAS to be the centre of the action and a new arrival is a pretty big excitement for her.

Anyway, I like to know what all my fish are and I have never seen this strain before. Does anybody know what it is and whether it breeds true?

Thanks.

Laura

 

[helterskelter]

Nice fish but not seen that before.

and thats rare as I've seen 100's of platie's over the years.

 

[LauraFrog]

Yeah, she's stunning. My eyes are all red because I sat up till all hours of the night staring at her swimming around my tank, haha. She's settled in well. She was eating a fish food pellet last night and Driver (my black molly, she can be relatively nasty) tried to steal it - Driver got her tail bitten for her trouble!

I'm calling her Striker, it just seems to fit her based on her behavior and the fact that she catches the eye. Even my mum had to admit she was nice. "Mouldy but attractive."
She thinks any fish with black markings is mouldy.

My bronze platy fry? Mouldy.
My dalmatian platy? Mouldy
My white molly with grey spotting on her head? Mouldy.
Tuxedo platy? Mouldy.
My bristlenose catfish? Mouldy.
The stunning dalmatian mollies in the LFS? Mouldy.
Peppered corydoras? Mouldy.

I give up on her, haha.

 

[Butch]

Wow I never seen coloration in platy through I saw that coloration in some Innes gambusia.

I think that Striker is a result of cross between a black platy and a neon platy or calico platy but I can be wrong. Wait and see her babies born then you will know what kind is father and its grandparents's colors.

 

[LauraFrog]

Thanks!!!
I have seen very little of gambusia, only feral specimens. Where I live they were widely released in an attempt at biological control (mosquitos) and are now declared noxious - they must be destroyed on sight and it is illegal to possess them.
I'll look up the gambusia on the net.

Proof - crossing strains can have some very nice results if you're right abut her parentage.

Those photos were taken yesterday, you can see how not-pregnant she is, but she's probably loaded with sperm so we'll see...

 

[Butch]

Just keep Striker and her babies if she's pregnant and you can selective breeding for its colors. I'm so jealous of your platy...I seen that coloration in some mollies ( dalamation x sunset cross) and recently new strain of Innes gambusia called "golden" Innes gambusia.

I really hate to see this unique color goes gone if you don't selective breeding Striker but who knows.

 

[Alistriwen]

I could be wrong, but Im fairly certain that is not a platy. Not a pure platy anyways, almost certainly.

 

[LauraFrog]

What else could it be? It's certainly not a molly. Do you think variatus or maybe swordtail? She does appear to have the maculatus body shape.

I intend to keep the fry and raise them. I really hope this breeds true, she is Striking alright! If I get enough demonstrating that colouration I might try to build up a strain. Problem is, brother/sister crosses aren't ideal and there are no other fish like this lying around to get fry out of.
Pet shop fish are almost always pregnant and she's fully grown. I would prefer to put her to a male with a recessive colouring trait or at least a similar one, but no doubt she's already mated and who knows what with.

Anyway, must get off internet. I'm behind on my maths revision, mostly because i have been gazing into a fish tank all day wondering how on earth I got lucky enough to pick up Striker for less than five dollars.
The people in the pet shop will be interested to hear that nobody has seen this colouration before.

 

[helterskelter]

I could be wrong, but Im fairly certain that is not a platy. Not a pure platy anyways, almost certainly.

No that is a platy.

Problem is, brother/sister crosses aren't ideal and there are no other fish like this lying around to get fry out of

Thie not idea du this is what been donr for the last 80 years and their still going strong in the hobby, it's not a major problem that u think but has to be done to try to fix the line.
Wish you luck with them as their an intresting fish

 

[Butch]

Well she does looks like a platy to me. You can still breed Striker's babies with same color of its mother each other but keeping all fry of Striker for its unique coloration recessive gene then get fry out of F1. Add F2 fry to F1 and Striker of same color to breed more fry of same colors. Sure its long project but its common practice in livebearers. Almost all goodeids and other livebearers are inbred for many years and they still do well with little or no effects. Wish you were in United States so I can probably know where this fish come from! What we calling this color of Striker? So I don't have to say color over again and again. We knew that she is Black platy cross with something. I was thinking about call this color, BB Mottled Platy. BB stand for Bronze/Black. But its up to you.

 

[tanafish]

this is going to sound dumb but, i have seen platties like this at wal-mart and less informed stores, i think its just an odd color from alot of mixed breeding!! sweet find tho, she's BEAUTIFUL

 

[LauraFrog]

Well since nobody has any idea what the strain is I suppose we have to find a name for it somewhere

Tana, you have seen this strain before? That's good, because I suppose that means that by crossing other strains the genetics must be there in US fish. Even if it is a result of people mixing up strains, it's a nice result. It might reduce the chances of it breeding true, but I can try because I think the fry might be quite popular. I sorta wouldn't mind it if she was a male, because it would make it a fair bit easier - find several females with recessive colouring trait, put them all to Striker, take the fry and breed them back to their father. But anybody can see she's a girl.

She is definitely a vigorous and healthy fish, it's not a 'dead' or a weak gene. That tiny bit of damage on the edge of her tail fin (from those nippy swordtails) is almost healed already. I wouldn't have any qualms about breeding. I luv her silver eyes!

I sure hope she's not pregnant to a swordtail, that would wreck the line. I'm going to go back tomorrow if I can and ask if anything else from that tank has been sold, check the colours and sexes of every other livebearer in the tank. I'm pretty sure there were no mollies in there, and definitely no guppies, but there were swordtails.

She is so cute...

Dammit I could really get serious about this line. Most people are reluctant to buy anything from certain fish-abusing chain stores (Wal-Mart in mind there. Haven't been there, but don't worry, Australia has its equivalent fish-abusing chain stores. been there done that) but I would probably make an exception for this. Then, I made an exception for another stunning fish earlier this year - and I lost her within two weeks, and infected another fish with whatever she had.

But here's the situation. I'm 13, living in a small country town. I have 3 tanks. One is tiny, it's stocked almost to capacity. One is tinier still, and I mean just over 1 gal, fry. Then there's a second one the same (just over 1 gal) stocked with six wild fish - it's an interesting species I'd like to work with a bit. I could chuck the wild fish and put more fry in there at a stretch, but it's too small for a full-grown platy to be comfortable in there.

Most of my fry are set up on the table out the east. My dad is annoyed because he thinks they take up too much room. If I clean up all the filth out there - which is a major job - they will take up one big table. At the moment most of them are tiny. When they get a bit bigger if I try to keep them all I'm in trouble.

I have a large number of 10gal or even bigger plastic crates. I can shelter them from ridiculous temperatures, birds, dirt etc, put gravel and plants in. But I can't get more filtered, lit, cycled aquariums. Platies are pretty tough, and I could keep them that way if I had to but I know it's not ideal. There are plans to move house, but first we have to build it and we haven't even started planning. My parents have promised me a big tank then and when they say big they mean big, so I'll have no troubles then. I was planning to go into tetras in a big way, but I think I need the space for all my livebearers. I'm hooked.

Haha - ignore essay!

 

[modaz]

ive seen these in a catalogue the other day and they were called copper blacks

 

[LauraFrog]

Really? Where?

 

[Butch]

Well you can have a tub outside and put fry in the tub and let them growing to sellable size. Keep copper black fry and give nonblack fry away then breed copper black fry in the tub. I used tubs for my endlers, gambusia and goodeids.

I want see the catalogo where they sell copper black platies!