Swordtail x Platy

[Melody]

I don't think I've ever purposefully tried to cross a Swordtail and a Platy. I've thought about it alot but I don't recall ever setting up a tank for it. Should be relatively easy with many of today's Swordtails on the commercial level being Platy crosses anyway.

I have a beautiful young Hifin Swordtail male that was younger than the other males I have. I wanted to take him out because he was being picked on quite often.

I just bought a new Twinbar Platy, regular finnage. Since she's isolated in quarantine anyway, I thought she'd be a fine one to start with. Probably put a Sunrise or two in there with him as well. He's also entertaining a few female Swordtails, so he's gone from being picked on and rejected to the stud of the tank. I swear he smiles at me now. :laugh:

This doesn't always work easily so the challenge will be fun. The odds are for me because:

He's a Hifin - all Swordtail (long) Hifins have some Platy in them.
He's largely red - all red Swordtails have some Platy in them & females like the color red.
She favours the Maculatus - Maculatus are the Platy more closely related to Swordtails.
There are no male Platy's in the tank - crosses happen more often if one fish is without a mate.
Its been done before so I know its possible.What's in it for me? He has a beautiful, thick, long dorsal with lots of color that would look SO very fine on a Platy. She is a color I've never seen a Swordtail come in.

What will come out of the pairing exactly is anyone's guess, since he's already a mix and chances are she is too at some point or other along the line. I should get a little bit of everything but they could be packing genes that will change the expected results.

I'll get some pic's of the two. I thought you might enjoy taking the journey with me and use the outcome for your own experiments if you are so inspired.:smile:

Besides, if I talk to anyone else about it, their eyes glaze over and they think "I wonder if being that obsessed with fish is normal...":wideeyed:

[jordonsmum]

Mel, you're NOT alone...lol somehow fish have become my life overnight again. I just receintly got my wind back after having it knocked out of me by a baby. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I got addicted again. Shawn's at sea right now. When he left "we" (translation... I) had one 15 gal in my sons bedroom for "his" pets. (REally I kept some of my own lyretail fry to possibly breed someday.. that day is here...lol) anyway, the poor guy doesn't know he's about to walk back into a house of a 15gal and two 10gals.... :chatterbox: . I informed him of one of the new 10gals on the phone, the other must have just slipped my mind..... tee hee hee OOPS!

So.. now that we've touched on Platy's ... what about lyretail molly's? I bought some cheepy fish to cycle one of those ten gals for a fry tank. I currently have a silver lyretail molly and a reg swordtail.. is anything possible??? I didn't have plans for them,, they were just "pretty". :laugh:

[thegrandpoohbah]

I call dibs on any babies you decide to sell! :yes:

[Melody]

So.. now that we've touched on Platy's ... what about lyretail molly's? I bought some cheepy fish to cycle one of those ten gals for a fry tank. I currently have a silver lyretail molly and a reg swordtail.. is anything possible??? I didn't have plans for them,, they were just "pretty". :laugh:

Mollies & Swords won't cross, although he'll try because he's a Livebearer...lol. Swordtails & Platy's are a Xiphophorus species. Mollies are more closely related to Guppies in the common Livebearer group, and even crosses between them are rare to unheard of. I know one breeder who pulled it off and that's it.

[Melody]

I call dibs on any babies you decide to sell! :yes:

Assuming you're talking to me...lol...I'll probably have to outcross any Hifins to a Variatus Platy before I'll get anything remarkable in Platy Hifins. They should get the length from the Swordtail cross and his dorsal is thick for a long-finned Swordtail, but its not the stuff that 'sailfin' Platy's are made of. But then others say that the Variatus outcross isn't necessarily what it takes to produce them, which only makes it more fun to play with. :smile:

It should be easier to get him to cross with the Maculatus first and then the results can be crossed into Variatus easily. I'm going to throw some Variatus Plumetail females in with some other Hifin Swords I have too and we'll see if I can take a shortcut, but its more likely with Maculatus. I don't have any mature Hifin Maculatus for him but if I find any I'll try them so I can get a higher percentage of Hifins out of the initial cross.

If I do manage to get the thick sailfin Platy's out of it eventually, you've got Michael ahead of you. I hope to have some of Darrel's Hifins here before I get all of that done so I may have them long before my experiment is declared a success or failure. Darrel is the one who produced those amazing Hifin Platy's that I'm forever going on about. Stunning creatures. That's the ultimate goal.

Thanks for giving me an excuse to ramble on about that...lol.

[thegrandpoohbah]

Who is Darrel and where can I get some of these hi-fin platys?

[Melody]

I love it when you're demanding....lol. You can't, he doesn't sell to the general public as a rule and he's in the States. They'll be here eventually though.:smile:

[Melody]

Lighting sux in this tank, but you'll get a general idea.

Twinbar Gold female:


http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f227/canadiansinternetdotcom/MM-GoldTwinbar-f.jpg

This one that I took before shows the textured cream overlay she has more. Almost reminds me of the black in black Tux's - all bumpy & shiney looking. Its like a raised patch covering both sides, with deeper gold down the top & dorsal.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f227/canadiansinternetdotcom/MM-GarlicBBsQuarantine2.jpg

This about as good as I can get of him. As he matures the dorsal will lengthen until it drapes over his back to about the half way point of the tail:

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f227/canadiansinternetdotcom/MM-HifinSwordtail-M-2.jpg


Swordtails often have a much more narrow-based Hifin, with even my best ones being probably 75% as wide as the ones I got in from this breeder. I guess that's why the guy sweeps the show circuit. ;)