Aside from guppies and platies, mollies are among the most popular aquarium fish, especially with aspiring freshwater aquarists. This is easy to understand since mollies are inexpensive, hardy and easy to breed. In addition, ever since the black molly was specifically bred by man for its color in 1930, cross-breeding has produced a vast array of colors, patterns and shapes (e.g., marbled, marbled lyretail, spotted silver, green, lyre-tailed black balloon, marmalade).
Mollies obtained their common name from the fact that they were originally assigned to the genus Mollienesia. Later taxonomical studies determined they were closely related to guppies and were reassigned to the genus Poecilia.
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