Amazon Molly - Cloning Themselves!!

dirtydawg10 said:
Very cool! Do you have any pics?
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I guess I could take a few - they're very boring looking fish really LOL But kind of neat that they're so identical. At first when they grew enough to really see their color, my daughter and I were both disappointed they were ALL just plain white. LOL Little did we know...:)

Here's a picture of one, until I can get some taken, and another interesting thing is that although every baby from a given mother is a clone, there are many strains still out there, since they can't cross each other, they remain pure. So, not every Amazon Molly unrelated will look exactly the same:

http://www.britishblogs.co.uk/images/269690.jpg
 
THE V said:
Weird? reproducing an exact clone is actually more common than you might think. Salamanders, frogs, lizards, bacteria, fungi, protists, nematodes and thousands of species of plants reproduce asexually. It's actually quite normal.
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The difference being, these species generally will become extinct rather quickly (relatively speaking) because their genes weaken due to no new DNA being introduced. However, the Amazon Molly has managed to not only survive but become one of the strongest, heartiest fish out there.
 
jpappy789 said:
Im always a little skeptical but very interesting...
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I would prefer this NOT be an Amazon molly, because I don't want to raise endless broods forever.

I've kept fish for a very long time, and with all due respect to the skeptics, I do have Amazon mollies here.

I just can't seem to find any info out on the availability of them, outside of wild caught, and estimated value, if any.
 
Again, if they're Amazons, you still can't have broods of them without males of closely-related species, so once the sperm runs out on the original generation, you'll be done with new ones.
 
Which is why I am skeptical. Regular mollies are so common that I just don't believe that a supplier somehow mixed in a wild caught amazon molly in. A "novelty" fish like this would be marketed as such in my opinion. But I don't have the fish so I can't see with my own eyes what they are. Nothing personal :)
 
ChilDawg said:
Again, if they're Amazons, you still can't have broods of them without males of closely-related species, so once the sperm runs out on the original generation, you'll be done with new ones.
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I have tankfuls of balloon mollies as well, and I assume these are closely enough related. I read that the reproductive system in Amazon's can be triggered by the mere sight of closely related males, so my daughter has taped construction paper to all the sides of the tank with the baby Amazon's but the front. LOL

I'll take pictures of them tomorrow, but not sure how clearly you will be able to see the identical identifying marks. They're fast little suckers and very active.

On another note, again for skeptics, what is the likelihood of all babies being "identical-looking females?"

Also, I have read dozens of accounts of places like PetCo getting in things they didn't even know the origin of. I think getting wild caught fish mixed in with a shipment of "captive-bred" fish would be quite common actually since those who captive-breed fish most times gather their original strains from the wild. Most fish are shipped from the southern US (for us in the US), if I understand correctly.
 
Sorry I still find it hard to believe that a amazon molly got mixed in with a shipment of captive bred mollie... Not that it isnt impossible or that I won't believe you but I just need more. Plus we always like seeing pics.

A good amount of fish are imported from asia but I'm not sure if it's actually more or less than those raised in the south. It probably depends on location.
 
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