Mollies are omnivorous fish, yet they prefer plant materials and algae as food, similar to their close relatives guppies and platy fish. Much like other livebearers, mollies breed constantly. As livebearers go, they require relatively easy care. Knowing whether your molly is male or female will help determine their numbers in your tank.
Anal fins provide the key to identifying whether your pet molly is male or female; males have these folded into an organ called the gonapodium while females feature regular triangular anals fins.
By inspecting their heads (rostrum), male mollies can easily be distinguished from their female counterparts. Males have longer heads than their counterparts and feature more pointed features; by comparison, females feature rounder faces and wider abdomens than their back bodies. Male mollies also possess special anal fins designed to act as narrow copulatory organs, used for depositing sperm into female hosts.
Poecilia latipinna and Poecilia velifera, commonly known as mollies, can be found throughout North America from Mexico down to northern South America. Both varieties thrive in loosely vegetated coastal streams, lakes, ponds and swamps with no predation from predators; often staying concealed beneath floating vegetation or structures to remain hidden from predators; they even survive roadside ditches! With their versatility making mollies popular aquarium fish due to selective breeding programs. Unfortunately this selective breeding has resulted in serious inbreeding problems which has produced numerous colors patterns and tail shapes while also producing serious inbreeding issues which has led to serious inbreeding issues within these populations over time resulting in severe inbreeding within populations due to severe inbreeding issues among their species populations resulting in some cases resulting in serious inbreeding.
