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Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Amazon mollies (Poecilia formosa) can be genetic clones and still behave differently. In controlled studies, individual fish showed repeatable differences in activity and feeding—even when researchers separated them at birth and raised them under standardized conditions. The experiments establish that close genetic similarity does not guarantee identical behavior. They do not establish one definitive cause.
What “individuality” means in these studies
Researchers use “behavioral individuality” to describe differences between individuals that are repeatable and predictable over time. It is a measurable research term, not proof that a fish has a human-like personality or a fixed character that never changes.
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That distinction matters: a group of genetically identical fish can differ in how active or how readily they feed, while each fish’s behavior can also change as it develops or responds to its surroundings.
What the controlled experiments found
Repeatable differences remained after social contact was varied
In a 2017 experiment, researchers divided clonal Amazon molly broods among three early social conditions: isolation from birth, seven days of group rearing, or 28 days of group rearing. Fish were subsequently isolated and assessed repeatedly at seven weeks. Individuals differed consistently in every treatment.
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In the isolated-from-birth group, differences between fish accounted for roughly 30% of total behavioral variation; estimated repeatability was 0.35, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.13–0.52. The experiment did not find support for the idea that the three social treatments changed the amount of behavioral individuality. That conclusion applies to these treatments and this measurement schedule—not to every possible effect of social life.
Differences were detectable from the first day
A 2022 high-resolution tracking study followed genetically identical fish separated at birth through their first ten weeks. It found behavioral differences on day one, and day-one behavior predicted behavior through at least ten weeks. Individuality strengthened as the fish developed.
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Because differences appeared so early, influences from before birth or from development are plausible candidates. The study proposed possibilities such as maternal provisioning, epigenetic variation, and developmental stochasticity; it did not demonstrate that any one of them caused the observed behavior.
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Why clones might not behave identically
Clonal describes genetic similarity; it does not mean that every developmental event, biological state, or experience is identical. The studies standardized important parts of the fish’s post-birth environment, but they did not establish that each fish experienced literally identical conditions at every moment.
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- Before birth: Mothers may provision offspring differently, and early development may vary. These are proposed explanations, not proven causes.
- Biological regulation: Epigenetic differences could affect how genes are expressed without changing the underlying genetic sequence. This remains a hypothesis in this context.
- Chance during development: Small stochastic differences may arise as an organism develops, even under closely controlled conditions.
- Subtle environmental variation: Tiny differences in temperature, chemical cues, or food experience may matter. Researchers have identified such microenvironmental variation as a possibility.
The available experiments do not separate these possibilities well enough to name a single explanation. The defensible conclusion is that individuality persisted despite close genetic and environmental control, not that the fish had perfectly identical lives.
Behavioral differences may relate to later life-history outcomes
A 2023 study followed 34 fish in standardized conditions for 280 days, recording 152 broods and measuring 2,522 offspring. It found repeatable differences among fish in both brood size and offspring size.
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Activity and feeding behavior were also repeatable during the study’s first four weeks: activity had an estimated repeatability of 0.371 (95% CI 0.329–0.413), while feeding behavior had an estimated repeatability of 0.183 (95% CI 0.145–0.224). Early feeding differences were associated with growth, and growth in turn predicted offspring size. The researchers did not find a direct relationship between early behavior and later reproductive traits; the reported link ran indirectly through growth.
Individual behavior is not the same as group behavior
A separate 2026 study tracked replicate groups of clonal Amazon mollies for 55 days. According to its PubMed abstract, the groups’ behavioral rankings shifted around weeks four to five. The authors interpreted early group differences as reflecting consistent individual variation, with later group trajectories becoming less predictable as social feedback increased.
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This concerns how groups behave over time, not whether individual fish differ. It complements—but does not replace—the individual-level findings from the other studies.
What a 2026 correction changes
In 2026, the authors of the 2017 study issued a correction after discovering that body-size values in the original analysis had been assigned to the wrong individuals. They reran the analyses with the documented original measurements and reported that the main behavioral findings and conclusions about social experience were unchanged. The corrected analysis also found a slight body-size effect: smaller fish were more active.
The correction therefore updates the body-size analysis without overturning the central result that repeatable behavioral differences appeared under each tested social condition.
Quick Recap
What the evidence supports
- Genetically clonal Amazon mollies can show repeatable differences in measured behavior.
- Those differences were found in controlled experiments, including among fish separated at birth.
- Varying early social contact in the 2017 experiment did not produce a supported change in the amount of individuality.
- Several biological and environmental explanations are plausible, but no single cause has been established.
- Separate work links early feeding to growth and, indirectly, to offspring size; group-level behavior is a distinct question from individual differences.
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