another obscure swordtail

[GaryofMontreal]

I have been trying three things for months:
a) to keep Xiphophorus malinche alive;
b) to photograph this skittish, shy fish;
c) to breed them again.

I have only one pair of the fish, and am hoping they will give me babies. At least I have a half decent photo now.1615

[CACAdmin]

You've succeeded on 2 counts now already... now we just await the fry. Great pic... patience (and probably a zillion shots) paid off, eh?

[Melody]

Malinche are finally becoming more widely available but they're still not an easy one to track down in this Country. They're a nice Xiph - I think they'll become very popular eventually. Good luck!

[GaryofMontreal]

It's not a fish I've seen signs of, other than the keeper I got them from. They have been tough to make headway with, so I'm glad they are becoming more common. If these don't work I'd like to be able to find them again - they are really interesting.
Are cortezi out there?

[Melody]

Everything is out there... well, mostly...lol. Cortezi is another more recent fascination that's growing. A lot of these fish had their day and then people lost interest, others are truly new. It's amazing how popularity will work in cycles, especially in Livebearers, but I think a lot of that is the sheer numbers one deals with when we breed Livebearers. It's just not feasible to maintain populations when you can only rehome 10/year. ::(:

I know I just spoke to someone who has Cortezi but I can't for the life of me remember who... it was in the US. When I say 'out there', I mean North America. I'll send you an e-mail when I think of it. Most of the people I know don't sell to the masses, just friends or for trades, but they'll often help a friend of a friend. I'm not trying to be elusive or self-important, it's just that if I posted a name in public I'd get a sound lecture! :laugh:

What's funny is often I'll think I know who has what, contact them, and they say no, not anymore, but such-n-such has some. So I ask such-n-such and no, that was last year, but he sold some to the other guy....lol...and on it goes until we find them. You're no stranger to that game!

One time I was sure I'd found the fish someone was looking for and I had a friend who was going to go get them from him because the guy only sold to a select few people, and even then only if he was in a good mood. So the guy finally goes out to his place, only to find out he'd passed away and his brother had given his fish to the first store who would come catch them!

[GaryofMontreal]

This is a little better.1658



Some men dream of silver and gold,
I just want these fish to breed before they get too old.

[Melody]

They're beauties! I can see why you're fascinated with them.

I think we should explore something this Summer. We all have our sources for wild-types and our wish lists are often similar. I wonder if a few of us could do an order each from whomever, and simply include the fish that the other wants. A more intimate form of group buy with a strategy within our little wild Livebearer group. I already know what you guys are after and naturally would involve you if I saw the fish you want, but if we can work together to find all of the fish from various breeders, we can split up the ordering so I pay to have them imported from this breeder, you do the other breeder, Brian does a third, etc. It would have to be intimate because there would be a lot of trust involved and we'd want experienced shippers to send the other fish along. Something to think about anyway. :Smile: