Photo: A group of Blue Opal Maculatus Years ago I created what I called a Hifin Blue Opal Maculatus, as its name implies a maculatus-type platy. I wrote about creating this fish for Tropical Fish Hobbyist. To read the TFH article see: ... Read More
american livebearer association
Fish Breeding, Introducing Recessive Gene
Photo is a male silver lyretail molly displaying a nice sailfin. This is the fish you want to create starting with a male silver sailfin molly and female green lyretail sailfin mollies Fish Breeding, Introducing Recessive Gene Recently I began a blog series on introducing new genes into a ... Read More
Introducing a Dominant Gene
Photo: A male Hifin Redwag Swordtail. I’m beginning a blog series on introducing new genes (technically alleles, but I’ll bow to common usage) into a xiphophorine population. In this blog I’ll discuss the mechanics of introducing a single dominant gene into a xiphophorine population. By the way, ... Read More
Red Freckled Hifin Swordtail
Photo: A first generation Red Freckled Hifin Swordtail male in front of one inch grid to show size. Okay, it’s going to take a while to untangle the genealogy of this fish. Let’s take the female first. The pictured female is large. She's in front of a one-inch grid that shows she almost ... Read More
Giant Marble Liberty Molly Update
Photo: Our current Giant Marble Liberty Molly breeder male. I originally wrote about this fish in May, 2015 (see my blog http://goliadfarms.com/giant-marble-liberty-mollies/). We have now gone through a couple of additional generations so I’m providing an update on the status of this molly ... Read More
Giant Redtail Blue Variatus Update
Photo: Our breeding male Giant Redtail Blue Variatus and one of his females. The two smaller fish are mature Redtail Blue Variatus. A while back I wrote about a new strain of fish we were developing (see: http://goliadfarms.com/giant-redtail-blue-variatus/). This blog gives a mixed bag of ... Read More
A Gambusia from Big Bend, a New Species?
Photo is a female Gambusia collected in August/September in the Big Bend region of Texas. The author hopes it's a new species. In August and September of 2012 I took two trips out to the Big Bend region of Texas. The first trip was with a daughter, Cara, and a son-in-law, Ky. Ky is the husband of ... Read More
Blue Iridescent Swordtail
Photo: An early male Blue Iridescent Swordtail used in the development of the strain. We raise a variety of commercial swordtails. While these fish closely resemble the shape of the wild swordtail Xiphophorus hellerii, they are hybrid strains with genes from other Xiphophorus species such as X. ... Read More
Feeding Fish Tips
Photo shows juvenile mollies in a vat ready to eat. Fish tip, How to Feed Your Fish: This tip was first published in our Newsletter No. 1, August 2013. I’m reposting it as a blog so that it can be searched for on our website and in my blogs. Here it is: Get plastic fish; they require no ... Read More
Sunset Variatus
Photo: Male Sunset Variatus I’ve recently begun blogging about the Variatus-type Platies we raise. For a discussion about the meaning of “Variatus-type,” check out an earlier blog I wrote about our Redtail Blue Variatus. This blog concerns our Sunset Variatus strain, which we developed ... Read More