Visual Differences Between The Livebearers, Except Guppies

[fishlette]

ok obviously i keep all this fish but i was just sitting there looking at all my guys and am wondering if i didnt know which guys were which i could prob get quite confused. the only thing i have noticed so far is that the mollies seem to have a reasonably long dorsal fin where the platys have a shorter one. the mollies are also larger than the platys. is this true or am i going cross eyed from looking in the tank for so long lol then the swords seem to have similar fins size and shape as the mollies but a longer more slender body.

now all my girls are pregnant and a few have dropped over the last week or so and i have 65 lovely little babies. problem is no one looks much slimmer so it is hard to tell who had what. my next question is at what point will i be able to tell the platys from the mollies and swords etc at this stage they all look the same except for white and dark ones.

also i read somewhere that you cant tell the gender of them until they are 6-7 months old. is this true? it might just be the way they are swimming or holding themselves or whatever but it looks like there are some with a visible back fin and and some without.

and one final question, at what stage will i see their colours and/or markings.



i forgot something...also the colorings and markings differ dont they? apart from some similar ones it seems their individual markings and colours are different

 

[Betta91]

Markings and color do differ. They depend on the mother's mate and his color. You should eventually begin to see color about a month after they were born or until they are about 1/2 - 3/4 of a centimeter long. I would think that when telling the species of all your fry that the mollies would be rounder in the belly...especially if they are balloon mollies.