Interesting Colored Fry

[kohyuta]

So after a successful vacation (meaning no loss of fish or fry while we were gone) as mentioned in this thread, I was able to catch some pics of the additional fry... and I'm intrigued by their coloring. Our first batch was obviously from our twin-bar, but it looks like the most recent batch have a lot of black. I'm assuming they're from our red-wag platy, but could they be from our dalmatian molly?

And I have to say that having fry is really a blast! Watching them grow and mature is much more fascinating than I expected.

8 fry plus a baby snail! Their bodies are light, but they have very dark tails.


Here's a shot of 3 fry... 2 look about the same age, and the third looks to be a bit younger. The right-most one looks like a twin-bar, the middle one is almost completely dark, so I'm really curious to see how its color turns out, and the left-most one is the youngest with a light body and dark tail (wag perhaps?).

 

[guppy_man]

I had fry exactly like those when i first started, mine were balloon mollies.

 

[freddythefish]

You can't tell which ones they are unless you are an 'expert' until a while after they have being growing.
Guppies are easier to tell because of their longer body and this is the same at birth.
Mollies are the biggest and most dependant fry out of all of them but behaivour is not really a way to tell species from species.
Platys and Swordtails are almost impossible to tell apart even when they are fully formed if its a female by novices and even some more experienced livebearer keepers can sometimes get confused (especially if you get into all the possible combinations of crosses)

FYI the smaller one is not always younger it is probably the same age (apart from like a few minutes) but it just has not been getting as much food because maybe the other ones are faster swimmers or whatever...you get the idea.

At a guess I would say platys but to be honest there's just as much chance of them not being platys!!!

Hope all this helps in some way

 

[lilfishie]

molly fry tend to be bigger than platy fry and will often come out coloured, IME Molly fry are deeper bodied

 

[kohyuta]

molly fry tend to be bigger than platy fry and will often come out coloured, IME Molly fry are deeper bodied

Thanks everyone for the info, every little bit helps! What do you mean by deeper? Longer? Sleeker? Thinner? They have lower voices?

I guess it'll become clear soon enough which fry is what... planning on getting a fry tank, and maybe even split it male/female so as to promote abstinence early