There is a lost fancy livebearer strain that has held a special place in my love for fancy livebearers for 50 years. It is the Wood's Veiltail Molly. It was developed from 2 different mutations on the tropical fish/waterlily farm of John Wood in Southern California in the early 1960's. The great Gene Wolfsheimer introduced it to the hobby in an article in a 1965 issue of "The Aquarium Journal". Wood himself began selling it nationwide in 1967 in the pages of "Aquarium Illustrated" and later in "The Aquarium" and "Tropical Fish Hobbyist". Wood sort of re-introduced the strain in an article he penned for "The Aquarium" magazine in 1968 as the strain had yet to catch on with hobbyists. The magazine of the Florida Fish Farmers Assoc., "The Trader", also ran a story on this beautiful fish and John Wood in 1967 or 1968.
Dr. Joanne Norton ordered marbled and black veils from Wood in the late 60's and began to raise the strains. She would be one of the last if not the last aquarist to maintain the strain into the early 90's. She gave it up when she retired from fishkeeping at that time due to illness.
Stephen Saunders would also order veils from Wood in 1967 and whether his fish came from Wood crossing the original "P. sphenops" based strain with P. latipinna or from a cross in Saunders' tanks, the variety took a decided evolution. Suddenly, the number of dorsal and caudal fin rays increased producing wide dorsals and enormous delta-type caudals on both sexes. These became the Widetail Veltail Molly and were unforgettable when introduced in 1970 by Saunders in "The Aquarium" magazine. Wood always claimed such specimens appeared in his original lines but he never fixed the improved traits as Norton and Saunders did.
Male veils were rarely useful as breeders as their gonopodiums were too large and poorly shaped. Regular finned males were bred to the veil females, usually related but not necessarily.
In 1973 I received a fantastic Green Widetail Veiltail Molly female from Norton. She was perfect. She grew into a 4 inch fish with a caudal 3 inches wide and 3 inches long. Majestic. I bred her to a recently collected population of the Giant Yucatan Sailfin Molly, Poecilia velifera. Bob Goldstein had brought wild velifera back into the US hobby in 1971 or 1972 after it had been lost to the hobby for a decade and Norton distributed their fry. It took a long time for the female to become pregnant and she never dropped many fry. I had the strain for a few years and then lost it. I would give anything to have it again.
Asian farms produced what they called a "Guppytail Molly" in the 1980's. They were far inferior to the Wood strain of veils and usually carried poorly formed, droopy, small veiltails. They were small and weak as a strain. In the 90's they were crossed to velifera commercial strains but there was little real improvement. Today, Asian farms are producing a new Veiltail Molly, seemingly derived from Lyretail Mollies. They are an improvement over the "Guppytails" but have a way to go. Of course, these fin forms are now often mainly available on the deformed runts know as "Balloon Body Mollies". Hideous.
First 4 photos by Norton are of her Widetail Veiltail Molly strain. Next 2 photos are of the original Wood strains one taken by Gene Wolfsheimer and one by A. Roth. Last photo is of John Wood, their developer.
Bobby Ellermann, 2025
