Once the goldfish had to go, the vision for my 29-gallon aquarium shifted to guppies. The tank is too big for just guppies, so I expanded the vision to a community tank with mostly livebearers. Changing my mind all the time is a gift.

The Red Cobra guppies are doing great. They’re always on the move which makes getting good pics a challenge. I’ve seen a few new babies at feeding time. At least one male and one female from the first bunch of babies have reached adulthood. They grow up so fast…

Pretty sure both platy females are moms. In my opinion, baby platies are absolutely the cutest baby fish, ever. They’re born with orange bodies, black tails and black fins–like miniature versions of adults. Adorable.

I read a non-fiction piece about black molly fish in my third grade reading group. Memories about grade school assignments are few and far between, but this one stood out. I couldn’t believe the fish in my aquarium was native to coastal areas of the southeast United States.

Molly fish come in a variety of shapes and colors. The “truest” molly to me will always be the generic black mollies, widely available at dime stores and pet shops for decades. I’ve kept numerous kinds of mollies over the years, but never black sailfin mollies—the variety pictured in my reading text book so many years ago.

Encouraged by my experience ordering guppies from AquariumFishSale.com, I returned to the site to look around. Black sailfin mollies were out of stock, but a button gave me the option to be notified when they were back in stock.

I’ve been chomping at the bit to buy more fish for my nearly-full tank, but have held off in hope of snagging a pair or two of sailfins. I was about to give up when the in stock notification popped up in my inbox.

I placed the order Friday evening for two pairs of sailfins, two panda catfish, and some plants. AFS only fills orders Monday through Thursday, so I was surprised to learn on Monday my order had shipped. The box turned up around noon Tuesday.

The mollies are bigger than expected and gorgeous. The red edge of the males’ dorsal fin shows up better than photographed. The absence of a visible gravid spot makes it hard to tell for sure, but the females appear to be pregnant.

My tank is full. One pair of mollies may have been wiser, but I couldn’t resist. No more new fish for me. Just babies.

Or maybe I need another aquarium….