Darkmoon Bettas
Fish Fanatic
I picked up the aquarium hobby at a the fairly young age of 8—after spending most of the previous year researching and becoming increasingly more fascinated by the world of fish, “Santa†left me a 10 gallon setup under the Christmas tree. I have a lot of very distinct memories of my own tanks and experiments, but only one extremely strong image from the literature which I devoured that year and is now in some good portion obsolete. I distinctly recall a slightly fuzzy black and white photograph of a very pretty semi-metallic mottled fish that was labeled as a “guppy x molly hybridâ€. That single fish fascinated me and stuck with me for many years. I tried to breed them myself in one of my experimental phases, stocking a 20-gallon community tank with just mollies and guppies in among the tetras, and of course met with no success, and soon moved on to other projects.
This past year, I began to build myself a proper fish room and really spend some time back in the hobby after some years of very casual, very minimal fish keeping. As I started running across some more unusual livebearers, starting with the Endler’s livebearer and hetrandria formosa, and eventually moving on to halfbeaks and goodieds, I came back to the long-ago memory of the “guppy x molly hybridâ€. Some time on Google brought up the debate on message boards across the web, which I read all of, fascinated. It seems that even nearly 20 years since I first came across the creatures, they were still mostly a mystery and their existence still questionable. Most personal accounts of livebearer hybridization I saw were questionable at best—such as failing to account for the female’s ability to store sperm for some months—and impossible at worst (balloon mollies are molly x platy hybrids, according to one dubious theory). So with much more to devote in terms of time and resources, I decided to work it out myself for once and for all.
I began with two female guppies—blonde with red tails—from a reputable local store who kept males and females in separate tanks, and whose wholesaler did the same. I picked the two that looked youngest, barely sexually mature, and with the body shape typical of a livebearer who has never carried a litter. I then isolated them in a 2-gallon tank, alone, for the next 4 months. Neither ever developed a gravid appearance or dropped any fry. A third female I raised myself, from a batch of 5 young fry I was given. The breeder net in the tank they were in tore before they were more than half an inch long, and 4 of the fry escaped into the tank and were eaten. This female, a silver half-black, was the sole survivor, and joined the other 2 girls in their isolation tank for the last month.
Surviving isolated gold female
black female (raised from fry)
After the females had remained under observation long enough to guarantee they were not retaining any sperm from previous matings with male guppies, I moved them to a 6-gallon Eclipse tank with many fake plants and a breeding trio of aoslene sphixi snails, and brought home two male mollies to join them. One male was a traditional, small, black molly, the second was a slightly larger “gold-dust†male. I selected smaller males that looked the most true to type as regards “traditional†mollies and avoided those that were obvious hybrids (within the molly family) with lyre tails or the much larger sail-fin influence.
Both males
The two groups of fish ignored each other for about a week and a half, then suddenly the males began courting the guppy girls in nearly a frenzy and both males were observed mating with all three females many times over several days.
Very fast, very blurry courtship!
And they held still for just the right split second!
Unfortunately, about a week later, one of the original blonde females died unexpectedly overnight, with no outward signs of illness. This brought the ratio down to 2 of each gender (and species) and while the gold dust male continued to try to court the females, the smaller black male suddenly took to harassing the gold dust male and trying to mate with HIM so much the gold dust couldn’t get to the female guppies and quickly lost interest in attempting to mate at all. I removed the black male to an empty quarantine tank, but the gold dust had been so harassed he ignored the female guppies, so after two days I switched him out with the little black molly male, who instantly went after the girls again.
Roughly six weeks after the introduction, the remaining blonde female appeared extremely gravid and eyespots were visible through her abdomen. While the half-black female had filled out a little, she still lacked the traditional gravid appearance, so she and both males were removed to a healthy community tank of non-livebearers while the very gravid blonde female was left in the 6-gallon to deliver.
Five days later, October 7, 2006, the blonde female guppy—the only fish in her tank—dropped a small batch of fry. I was able to count at least four, and she still has some eyespots showing through her side, indicating she is likely not done with the birth. The fry are extremely large for a guppy, and have the body shape of a newborn molly, not a guppy. All the fry appear to be a muddy marbled/mottled color typical of mollies. If I had seen these fry in a tank with no knowledge of their heritage, I would have assumed they were simply slightly smaller than usual molly fry. At one day old, there is very little sign of the guppy parentage, although this may change as they age.
October 8, the blonde female was removed to a recovery tank. There are at least 6 fry, there is enough riccia, duckweed, and anacharis/elodea that an accurate count is difficult.
Photos of the fry at one day old:
This past year, I began to build myself a proper fish room and really spend some time back in the hobby after some years of very casual, very minimal fish keeping. As I started running across some more unusual livebearers, starting with the Endler’s livebearer and hetrandria formosa, and eventually moving on to halfbeaks and goodieds, I came back to the long-ago memory of the “guppy x molly hybridâ€. Some time on Google brought up the debate on message boards across the web, which I read all of, fascinated. It seems that even nearly 20 years since I first came across the creatures, they were still mostly a mystery and their existence still questionable. Most personal accounts of livebearer hybridization I saw were questionable at best—such as failing to account for the female’s ability to store sperm for some months—and impossible at worst (balloon mollies are molly x platy hybrids, according to one dubious theory). So with much more to devote in terms of time and resources, I decided to work it out myself for once and for all.
I began with two female guppies—blonde with red tails—from a reputable local store who kept males and females in separate tanks, and whose wholesaler did the same. I picked the two that looked youngest, barely sexually mature, and with the body shape typical of a livebearer who has never carried a litter. I then isolated them in a 2-gallon tank, alone, for the next 4 months. Neither ever developed a gravid appearance or dropped any fry. A third female I raised myself, from a batch of 5 young fry I was given. The breeder net in the tank they were in tore before they were more than half an inch long, and 4 of the fry escaped into the tank and were eaten. This female, a silver half-black, was the sole survivor, and joined the other 2 girls in their isolation tank for the last month.
Surviving isolated gold female
black female (raised from fry)
After the females had remained under observation long enough to guarantee they were not retaining any sperm from previous matings with male guppies, I moved them to a 6-gallon Eclipse tank with many fake plants and a breeding trio of aoslene sphixi snails, and brought home two male mollies to join them. One male was a traditional, small, black molly, the second was a slightly larger “gold-dust†male. I selected smaller males that looked the most true to type as regards “traditional†mollies and avoided those that were obvious hybrids (within the molly family) with lyre tails or the much larger sail-fin influence.
Both males
The two groups of fish ignored each other for about a week and a half, then suddenly the males began courting the guppy girls in nearly a frenzy and both males were observed mating with all three females many times over several days.
Very fast, very blurry courtship!
And they held still for just the right split second!
Unfortunately, about a week later, one of the original blonde females died unexpectedly overnight, with no outward signs of illness. This brought the ratio down to 2 of each gender (and species) and while the gold dust male continued to try to court the females, the smaller black male suddenly took to harassing the gold dust male and trying to mate with HIM so much the gold dust couldn’t get to the female guppies and quickly lost interest in attempting to mate at all. I removed the black male to an empty quarantine tank, but the gold dust had been so harassed he ignored the female guppies, so after two days I switched him out with the little black molly male, who instantly went after the girls again.
Roughly six weeks after the introduction, the remaining blonde female appeared extremely gravid and eyespots were visible through her abdomen. While the half-black female had filled out a little, she still lacked the traditional gravid appearance, so she and both males were removed to a healthy community tank of non-livebearers while the very gravid blonde female was left in the 6-gallon to deliver.
Five days later, October 7, 2006, the blonde female guppy—the only fish in her tank—dropped a small batch of fry. I was able to count at least four, and she still has some eyespots showing through her side, indicating she is likely not done with the birth. The fry are extremely large for a guppy, and have the body shape of a newborn molly, not a guppy. All the fry appear to be a muddy marbled/mottled color typical of mollies. If I had seen these fry in a tank with no knowledge of their heritage, I would have assumed they were simply slightly smaller than usual molly fry. At one day old, there is very little sign of the guppy parentage, although this may change as they age.
October 8, the blonde female was removed to a recovery tank. There are at least 6 fry, there is enough riccia, duckweed, and anacharis/elodea that an accurate count is difficult.
Photos of the fry at one day old:
