silver mollies

hi all, my silver mollies are now about 3 months old and i have 4 females and 1 male, im just wondering at what age will they mate at and also with them being siblings will the male mate with his sisters, thanks

they should be able to mate soon, and it's never a good idea to inbred due to deformed offspring.

Somewhere i read that inbreeding aquarium fish is not a big problem so long as it doesn't go on for several generations. In fact, some of the variations like silver mollies, some fancy guppies, koi angelfish, etc., are the result of intentional inbreeding. That's probably why they're not all fertile.

I have to agree with John on this one.

Many times in breeding Angels... If you're after a specific look... you may breed siblings... Or even offspring to the parents.

I know it sounds rather sick... but in the wild... it would happen...

Now that I think about it... On the Betta only sites that I've looked into. Almost all the Betta pairs for sale are brother and sister. And it's recommended to you to purchase 2 brothers and 2 sisters all from the same spawning...

The genetic code of a fish is not as large as that of a bipedal hominid, so there are fewer chances for something to go wrong with the fish's genetic operations. Some invertebrates, I understand, are even capable of parthenogenesis. It's also true that the European royal families are closely related because of the requirement to marry other royals. The results, in earlier times, were some physically and mentally challenged monarchs, many of whom greatly influenced the course of western civilization.

Well, that's my happy thought for the day.

well my guppys interbred and a got a batch of babies that all of their backbones are formed like V's, and they can't swim right. My friend breeds mollies and she said she interbred hers and she had the same problem, except none of the babies lived long because they couldn't swim at all, therefore could not eat.

A lot of fish that you buy from the pet store will have issues such as these.

It's an unofficial term... "Bred Out" The fish farms will continuously breed until the fish are "Bred Out" and either can't produce offspring, or produce deformed offspring.

If you get your stock from a private breeder, or get some wild blood into your stock, this will not usually be a problem.

There are other things that will cause birth defects, like if you don't do daily water changes with aged water on fry tanks... With Angels you'll get belly sliders... If you let these mature, or if they make it, they'll be without a bottom fin.

Some fish are more liable to have water quality issues than others... Any fish that is from an egg, and goes through a wiggler stage... laying on the bottom of the tank, in their own excressions.

Now, that being said, without wanting to sound rude... If you go on Aquabid, and purchase a pair of Moscow guppies for say $50.00, or if you go to a Local Fish store and purchase pair of Misc. Fancy tail guppies for say $7.00. If I were serious about raising fry... I would make the investment.

Also, with that being said... I don't know how old you are, but it didn't use to be this way. About 15 years ago, when I entered the hobby, you could buy the Misc. fancy tail guppies at the local fish store and get some really pretty guppy fry. This just usually isn't the case any more.

Now... If you wanted to make some investments, and be a troubador... You could purchase some good pairs, breed them, and sell them back to the local fish store... True, the profit will be close to approaching zero, but... The benefit, of the 15 year old, getting into fish keeping, and wanting to try their hand at raising some guppies... That thought is truely priceless!