Still a molly right?

[Tinanewfishmom]

So this is a pretty much a noobie question...but my Molly has this pretty tail that is obviously different from her other Mollie friends' tails. She's still a molly right?

 

[Colin_T]

she is a lyretail molly. The lyretail part being from the shape of her tail. It is just a man made mutation of the normal molly.

 

[Tinanewfishmom]

she is a lyretail molly. The lyretail part being from the shape of her tail. It is just a man made mutation of the normal molly.

oh good! thanks for responding

 

[AmandaN]

Most def a molly fish. Mollies are my favorite clean up crew for algae. A lot of people forget how effective they are consuming algae. Here's more info if your interested on mollies. mollyfish.com

 

[AbbeysDad]

Colin says "man made mutation", I say "selective breeding". No different than thoroughbred race horses or pure breed dogs. Man has been doing it since the dawn of time!
At some point, through a twist of genetics a fish demonstrates a different color, body shape, fin shape, or some other interesting characteristic. Finding it interesting and/or attractive, breeders will line breed that fish to produce more of the same. A very many of the colorful and interesting fish we have in the hobby are the result of selective line breeding.
And so it goes...

Genetics is an amazing thing. I had some red and pineapple swordtails. I put three trios of reds in my 110g stock tank. Some pineapple fry were added from my 60g. They are colony breeding and I have reds, pineapples, sunsets, red wags, pineapple wags, and just maybe a few greens. I now have 100+ fish that periodically go to the local fish store a couple dozen at a time.

 

[AmandaN]

Here is a diagram of all the types of mollies. Hope that helps.

image source