# any swordtail breeders out there?



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

So I was wondering what kind of fish will the outcome of a male mickey mouse platy and a female mickey mouse swordtail will be, I'm trying to get more of these hi fin mickey mouse lyretail swordtail fish. So far my female swordtail has given birth to 1 hi fin lyretail silver blueish orange swordtail fish, but she has given birth again around more then a month ago to a bunch of fry that just looks like plain mickey mouse platy. it's been around a month and a half and I don't see any swords developing.

Adult Hi fin Mickey mouse Lyretail swordtail fish, male and female, and 1 offspring

Juvie Swordtail hopefully hifin lyretails soon


----------



## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

If you want swordtails, why are you breeding to a platy?


----------



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

wasn't on purpose male platy was in the tank, and the male adult mickey mouse hifin lyretail I don't thing can breed his goum something is too big.


----------



## Cory (May 2, 2008)

gonopodium is the word  

There is no one out there who can tell you the outcome of such a cross unless they bred the parental lines themselves and have also tried the same cross. There is also no guarantee any of the fry will look like one another. Because of all the different genes fish can inherit, siblings from the same drop can have radically different traits and quite often those traits are totally unpredictable. There have been a lot of good articles about fancy livebearer breeding in TFH recently that you could read, a few specifically on the xiphs (platies and swords) . You should also keep in mind that not all xiphs can interbreed so your female may be giving birth from milt from a male in the tank you got her from originally (assuming shes from a store). The platy and sword may not be breeding to one another at all and may not be able to. I have a female koi swordtail in a tank with two male platies and no breeding has come of it (not that I want it to the fry would be uggggly). 

That's part of the fun with livebearers though, you really get to play god because they reproduce and grow up so fast you can have multiple generations play out in a single year. If you have the space to raise all the fry to near adult size, I'd say go for it and see what you get. Pick what you like and breed them to one another (dont worry about inbreeding unless you start to see regular deformities). Eventually if you find something you really like you keep breeding for that trait, culling anything that doesn't match and over time a trait becomes "fixed" and you can start to say for sure that mating X male and Y female will produce Z fry. 

Have fun!


----------



## Gargoyle (Aug 21, 2008)

I'd expect predicting to be uncertain - all the fish involved are already hybrids, and if you don't know what made them up, you don't know what you'll get. You crossed a hybrid platy with a hybrid sword.
This is if the swords and platies crossed - I'm with Cory on everything in the previous post, but especially with that.


----------



## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

Almost all of these livebearers in the trade are hybrids themselves. It is impossible to predict the outcome of mixing two hybrids.

I have lots of swords and I find it completely impossible to predict what will happen even if only two swords in your tank are orange, it's only likely, but not certain, that all their offspring will be orange. 

Incidentally all platies and swords are so crossed with each other's lines that one can only make a visual identification leading to an accurate english trade name, I really don't think that the Latin species names are even applicable, since these describe wild type species, not heavily-engineered breeding lines like all commercially traded swords and platies. What is the latin name for a Beagle, or a Pug?  

W

P.S. Those videos are your fish and your tank!? Very nice! Well done. As for the sword tails developing, that trait will not necessarily be present in any hybrid-x-hybrid pairing, and in my case, the males have not shown any sword-point to distinguish them from a platy, until they reach a length of over 1 inch.


----------



## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

I have a pair of Yellow Marble Platties that I am hoping will breed for me...there are in my Fluval Chi tank right now, very pretty looking fish!


----------

