This prompted the thread ...
Maybe I should be a little more clear on my thoughts about the mollies in particular. Yes, there are different species of mollies, but because of their sexual compatability, it's hard to draw the line between species. Especially in pet shop mollies.
As you said, just about any fish from the Poecilia genus can be bread with any other fish from the genus Poecilia. But, what then do you call the offspring? Well, the simple answer is a hybrid. It's a mix of species. In a lot of the natural world, hybrids are sterile (mules are! You can't breed a mule to a mule) which makes naming them really easy. Hey, it's a mule ... it's a cross between a horse and a donkey. (And did you know: Breeding a male donkey to a female horse results in a mule; breeding a male horse to a female donkey produces a hinny. Both of which are normally sterile.)
When you start talking about wolves, again you run into a hybrid situation. However, that situation is a little different because the offspring can breed with either parent species or with siblings. This is where you start hearing things like "it's an 80% wolf hybrid." If the offspring had been just between a dog and a wolf, it would be 50%. So, what species is it when you've got a percent mix between two species? Zoologist don't know. They don't give hybrids a species name. It's simply a mixing of species which can actually be very benificial.
Now when it comes to mollies. There has been so much interbreeding of species with mollies that it's near impossible to pin a species name on a molly simply using phenotypic qualities. More than likely, any mollie you get at a pet shop is a molly hybrid of some kind even if it looks like a particular species.
So for me, it's quite a bit simpler to say a molly is a molly is a molly ... even though I'm well aware that there are different species. This is a huge, hot topic in the zooloical world. Where do you draw the lines?? Heck we don't know! This this looks good! I think we'll call it a species!
If your really interested in fishy genetics and what makes a species a species, look into the sunfish at lake victoria in Africa. There are (well, were ... stupid people) about 30 different species of sunfish there which were all capable of interbreeding. Talk about genetic soup!
This is a fascinating topic for me.
tricksterpup said:I can also cross breed endlers with Guppies, sword tails with platies, but I am not here to argue but stop misceptions. Basically most fish that fall under Poecilia can and will interbreed with each other. This is like a donkey and a horse breeding and the end result is a mule. Now is the Donkey and the horse the same species? no they are not but they do share some of the same gentic traits that allows them to interbreed. Same goes for a wolf and a dog, different species but still can interbreed.
If you would like to discuss this, we could create a new thread or just pm me.
Maybe I should be a little more clear on my thoughts about the mollies in particular. Yes, there are different species of mollies, but because of their sexual compatability, it's hard to draw the line between species. Especially in pet shop mollies.
As you said, just about any fish from the Poecilia genus can be bread with any other fish from the genus Poecilia. But, what then do you call the offspring? Well, the simple answer is a hybrid. It's a mix of species. In a lot of the natural world, hybrids are sterile (mules are! You can't breed a mule to a mule) which makes naming them really easy. Hey, it's a mule ... it's a cross between a horse and a donkey. (And did you know: Breeding a male donkey to a female horse results in a mule; breeding a male horse to a female donkey produces a hinny. Both of which are normally sterile.)
When you start talking about wolves, again you run into a hybrid situation. However, that situation is a little different because the offspring can breed with either parent species or with siblings. This is where you start hearing things like "it's an 80% wolf hybrid." If the offspring had been just between a dog and a wolf, it would be 50%. So, what species is it when you've got a percent mix between two species? Zoologist don't know. They don't give hybrids a species name. It's simply a mixing of species which can actually be very benificial.
Now when it comes to mollies. There has been so much interbreeding of species with mollies that it's near impossible to pin a species name on a molly simply using phenotypic qualities. More than likely, any mollie you get at a pet shop is a molly hybrid of some kind even if it looks like a particular species.
So for me, it's quite a bit simpler to say a molly is a molly is a molly ... even though I'm well aware that there are different species. This is a huge, hot topic in the zooloical world. Where do you draw the lines?? Heck we don't know! This this looks good! I think we'll call it a species!
If your really interested in fishy genetics and what makes a species a species, look into the sunfish at lake victoria in Africa. There are (well, were ... stupid people) about 30 different species of sunfish there which were all capable of interbreeding. Talk about genetic soup!
This is a fascinating topic for me.
