Silver Molly from Black Mollies

Question
Hello...we've had fish for about 5 months now. We had two black mollies, then one died. We replaced him/her, with another black molly. One or the other died, then, lastly, the only survivor died. Out of the last two (although we're not sure which fish breeded), we ended up with 9 mollies...all of them black except one, who obviously is a silver molly. My question is: two black mollies can have a silver molly? We're totally new to having fish. We're just curious about how this happened. Thank you in advance for any info you can share with us.

Answer
Hi Carol:  It all comes down to genetics.  If the two black molly's were pure bred then no they should not have a silver molly. But liver bearers are a bit different then most fish because the females can store sperm for up to six months...so each individual fish can have a different father.  It is very possible that one silver molly and one black molly mated and the results are 8 black molly's and one silver ... the silver may be a recessive gene... hope this helps... dave