# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Livebearers >  Xiphophorus helleri aka Swordtail

## phuakokhong

Always love swordtail since I am little in primary school, By chance saw this beautiful species with really big fins and red eyes, can't resist and bought myself a pair of it, anyone manage to produce fries from it? 

Just got it for a day, so far the male hasn't harress the female yet.

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## pauleecs

> Always love swordtail since I am little in primary school, By chance saw this beautiful species with really big fins and red eyes, can't resist and bought myself a pair of it, anyone manage to produce fries from it? 
> 
> Just got it for a day, so far the male hasn't harress the female yet.


Hi. Can share where you bought from and what is cost like?

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## Wackytpt

There should be stock in C328.

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## harnsheng

This is a nice one! But, can they be bred? There's few occasion where i bought and it didnt even give birth to one fry..  :Sad:

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## kenny

Saw them at Yishun Aquastar sold in pairs, not sure if they reproduce...

phuakokhong, let us know soon !  :Very Happy:

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## phuakokhong

yes, its from C328, price a few red notes. The pair is healthy and happy so far in a 1 feet cube tank. Waiting for the male to harress the female, no sign of it yet!  :Shocked: 

But at least the red colour on it to me resemble auspicious, like a pair of red phoenix ushering a new year!  :Grin:

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## stormhawk

The fish in the picture is a cross between the swordtail and one of the high-fin platy strains. The real swordtail has a shorter dorsal fin and longer more streamlined body form. That might explain why you might have difficulty getting fry from them, if this strain has fertility issues. Or that female in the picture is starting to change sex. This is common in some livebearers, especially swordtail and platy. I noticed her anal fin is pointed.

Nice fish though.  :Well done: 

I'm still looking for the swordtail strains I saw as a child. Something like this:



Pic from www.tropicalfishandaquariums.com. The swordtail I remember, had a yellow and black sword.

And this form:



Green swordtail. Picture from www.dpi.nsw.gov.au

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## huhengyi1986

yea! nice fishes. albinos right? i saw C328 auntie pack their fries in a bag when 1 of de female gave birth in a bag.maybe ask her lo

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## phuakokhong

Thanks for the info stormhawk. Did just read about all young swordtails in fact are female, and possible to see sex changes and then developing the long tail. Just curious, if this is the case, will the gonopodium also appear?

My male is "very active" since last night. I think my female didnt get a good sleep! Harressment whole night and day!
 :Grin:

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## stormhawk

Yes the gonopodium will form when a female changes sex to male, but fertility is lower I think. Haha you better keep an eye out on them. Sometimes the female die from too much harassment. Maybe if you want better luck, get another male. Almost always makes them work twice as hard to make the female pregnant.  :Grin:

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## harnsheng

Im looking for that green swordtails too! It is hard to find nowadays, when few years back, it was common in LFS.

The green swordtail i've found recently were this:




I bred some of them and the young are actually gray. Let me grow them up and see how the coloration change.

Wow.. female give birth inside the bag? i would tapao that straight if im there... hehehe

Swordtail change sex are quite common. Even the wild strains does that. Some of my Montezumae was supposingly females as it is huge and fat. But few weeks later, the sword starts to come out and the gonopodium forming...  :Sad:  She was at 6 months old, with total length of 3 inch.

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## stormhawk

Nice swords, but yes, very hard to find the green and the usual red one nowadays. Almost always I see lyretail swordtails with the males having those extra long gonopodium.. then they cannot breed successfully..  :Knockout: 

Nice to know you have monties up north. I haven't seen one here yet.

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## harnsheng

Penang here still can get the normal red one, while the lyretail breeding can be achieve using normal male. The lyretail gene is dominant if im not mistaken, so.. any males can do, as long as it had short gonopodium.

Yeah, i think im the only one having monties right now.. haha.. i got a colony of 30+ swimming in my cement pond.  :Smile:  Still waiting for them to mature and start produce some fries..

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## phuakokhong

harnsheng, regarding to the picture of the green male swordtail, is the gonopodium consider on the long side or short side? Actually why is it a short gonopodium is better?

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## harnsheng

It's consider short. 

Long gonopodium cannot function properly, cant inseminate the female due to too long... that male cant even aim properly... LOL

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## phuakokhong

Thanks! then my male red hi-fin swordtail is not consider long!  :Smug:  And hopefully got good news in weeks to come!

 :Grin:

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## hwchoy

> yea! nice fishes. albinos right? i saw C328 auntie pack their fries in a bag when 1 of de female gave birth in a bag.maybe ask her lo


what do you mean albinos? if you are referring to the beige coloured swordtails, those are actually the wild coloration.

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## naturalmystic

Bros,

I bred Swordtails years ago too.
Ever noticed that when the fries reach adulthood, they will never be as big as their parent? Seems like each generation is smaller in size than the previous one.

Years ago too, I went to one of the Jalan Kayu fish-shop and saw that it was selling Swordtails. The size is normal as those you will find in most LFS. Then I saw the breeding pair, twice as big and the colour is so intense! Tried buying from the owner but was unsuccessful.

Bought discus instead  :Grin:

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## stormhawk

If the swordtails you are breeding, has had platy genes in its genetic makeup, in many cases the subsequent offspring can get shorter in body size, especially if they are bred brother to sister or parent to offspring without any out-crossing to other swordtails that don't have the platy genes.

Long gonopodium like those lyretail swordtail strains, will be unable to breed successfully. That is why some commercial breeders (farms etc.) retain the males that have normal gonopodiums in some batches of fry, and sell off the rest since they are incapable of inseminating the females. Sometimes they'll resort to artificial insemination.

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## Interestor

> Always love swordtail since I am little in primary school, By chance saw this beautiful species with really big fins and red eyes, can't resist and bought myself a pair of it, anyone manage to produce fries from it? 
> 
> Just got it for a day, so far the male hasn't harress the female yet.


 
yup, can be breed through  :Smile: 


CHeers..

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## phuakokhong

> yup, can be breed through 
> 
> 
> CHeers..


 
How many fries did you manage to get?

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## skaer

yea.. interested to know

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## Interestor

> How many fries did you manage to get?


 
not sure how many, cause was breed in pond.

not very less though  :Grin: 

CHeers..

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## phuakokhong

Managed to get a friend to take a few close shorts on my hi-fin red swordtails.

The male:


The female:


Togetherness:

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## hwchoy

they don't seem to have any eyes?

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## phuakokhong

> they don't seem to have any eyes?


Their eyes are red. everything red!

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## hwchoy

I'm sorry I just couldn't dig all these selective bred strains. I think the original wild form is so much more graceful.

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## harnsheng

yeah, agree with hwchoy. Somehow, the wildies still have the charm. But it's hard to obtain any wild swordtails in this region. I only managed to get X.nezahualcoyolt and X.montezumae. Might be getting X.kallmani soon!

Anyone have sources for wild swordtails?

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## stormhawk

Damn you also got the nezahualcoyotls. Those guys.. I doubt we've seen them here. The latest oddball livebearer that Scope brought back from Taiwan was probably the Micropoecilia parae that another hobbyist is breeding now I think. My dream swordtail is X. pygmaeus. 

As for a source, unless you visit Taiwan or Japan, it might be hard to come by other wild livebearers.

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## harnsheng

I got M.parae melanzoma blue and red. But no fry's yet..  :Sad: 
X. pygmaeus? i remember our importer bring some before... if im aware that time, i would have taken all..

Yeah, i guess i need to pay a visit to Taiwan soon!  :Razz:

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## swordtail_king

can anyone help me out on how to produce swordtail platy hybrids?? ive tried male sword to female platy NOTHING they didnt even acknowledge each other. male platy to female sword NOTHING, all the articles on the net say "they freely interbreed" lol. well when i set up the pairs i only use 1 pair. thats it in 20 gallon tanks. anyone have luck? can anyone suggest me the best setup? (male sword to female platy or male platy to female sword) thanks

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## Shi Xuan

It is highly plausible for the interbreeding of these 2 species, especially when they are of the same genus. Setting up male swordtail to female platy & vice versa will yield the same result whether they produce any fry or not. The only difference from the outcome of these 2 setups is probably the phenotypes that they will produce. Perhaps, if you want to know more about the genus xiphophorus, you should ask tobi aka wagtail of Germany, he is quite knowledgeable on livebearers. He even has a blog;

http://guppyfocus.blogspot.com

or you can visit the German xiphophorus breeder, Günther Schramm's webpage, he's got everything you want to know of;

http://www.xiphophorus-zuchtformen.de/
 :Smile:

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## Phineasborg

I'm a swordtail fan too, for many years. I love green swordtails - so difficult to find them now - they were so common years ago. For those older, you may recall that some markets used to sell a bag of 4 swordtails (1 m, 3f) for like a $1. They were all big and red. and there were the giant ones too. sigh. can't find them now.

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## stormhawk

Many old "bread-n-butter" fish like the old tuxedo, red swordtails are no longer found easily. Maybe in the feeder tanks. It's a pity when I see young Tiger Barbs being sold as feeders. Looking back at this thread, I think I should go get me some swordtails.

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## Shi Xuan

Speaking of swordtails, I don't have any domestic strains at the moment but I'm hoping some juvenile Xiphophorus cortezi 'Vinasco' comes this way from Japan though. A pity wild livebearers are not popular in Singapore where they are so common in many other countries.  :Sad:

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## stormhawk

Last "wild" livebearers seen were a few Xenotoca eiseni, Characodon audax? and the known colour forms of Micropoecilia parae. Aside from those that I saw, the rest were pretty much fancy strains like the show guppies and such.

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## Surfari'sAquariumSupplies

> can anyone help me out on how to produce swordtail platy hybrids?? ive tried male sword to female platy NOTHING they didnt even acknowledge each other. male platy to female sword NOTHING, all the articles on the net say "they freely interbreed" lol. well when i set up the pairs i only use 1 pair. thats it in 20 gallon tanks. anyone have luck? can anyone suggest me the best setup? (male sword to female platy or male platy to female sword) thanks


Hi, when you are breeding livebearers, you must always keep the ratio at (M:F= 1 : >3). One male should only be kept with three or more females. This way, the male's attention will be diverted, and will not chase after the only female in the tank, stressing her out, causing death in some cases. There will also be a higher chance of more females being inseminated, the male will also have more partners to choose from instead of only one. Good luck! :Smile: 

Hmmm... sadly the Singapore aquarium trade do not focus that much on Swordtails and Xiphophorus livebearers anymore. Even if there was, they do not come cheap. Few years back it was rather abundant, platies and swordtails of all variations could be seen almost everywhere. Been trying to breed some bread and butter variations of such Swordtails and even Platies, hope to cater to some of the fellow members here.

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## Shi Xuan

Jianyang, I'm still keeping a small breeding colony of Micropoecilia parae melanzona 'red' but I'm thinking of giving them up to anyone who wants to propagate them. They are very slow-growing & spend 6-7 months maturing before they can be sexed & produce only a dozen fry. Highly cannibalistic, so planting the breeding tank generously can save a few babies from being gobbled up by the hungry adults & I use lush plants, Ceratophyllum demersum & java moss for that.

Characodon lateralis is a nice goodeid species. I would be elated if I can find a breeding pair or group in our LFS but my favorite goodeid species would be Giradinichthys multiradiatus. It's so rare that I could hardly think of anyone keeping it anywhere else.  :Confused:

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## stormhawk

Hi Shi Xuan,

Yes you mentioned that in the PMs we were exchanging. Sadly, I have no space for these fish at the moment. It is a pity that we can't find nice livebearers locally. Fancy strains are all the rage and hence, people won't care so much for the wild ones, especially the drab species. I last saw the Characodon at C328 but that was many months ago. I figure a trip there once a month might be worthwhile. I remember the Xenotoca were in a puny betta tank for weeks until I came by and didn't see them again. I figure they either got purchased, or died.

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