Photo: Two very young male Bronze Sailfin Mollies showing the improved coloration I selected for. They are too young to sport nice sailfins, but they grew up with large dorsals. As evidence of their youth, look at their gonopodia (anal fin), which are just beginning to develop. How many times ... Read More
genetics
Poecilia formosa – Amazon Molly
Photo: Two Poecilia formosa, Amazon mollies, collected from Coleto Creek at Highway US 77 in Victoria County, Texas. December 12, 2017, four of us plus two German Shepherds went collecting on Coleto Creek in Victoria County, Texas (see my blogs: ... Read More
Fancy Red Tuxedo Swordtails
Photo: Female Red Tuxedo Lyretail Swordtail. As is typical of our strain, females don’t have as bright red coloration as males. We’ve started working on adding three fancy fin types, lyretail, hifin, and plumetail to each of our commercial swordtail, maculatus, and variatus lines. I’m going to ... Read More
Orange Freckled Swordtails
Photo above is a male Orange Freckled Swordtail. The grid behind him is in inches and shows his size. Those of you who have read many of my past articles and blogs know that a common theme throughout my writings is serendipity (could also be called “luck”). This interesting fish arose from a ... Read More
Blue and Giant Mollies
Photo: A male Giant Sailfin Molly showing his size against a one-inch grid. About four years ago, I wrote an article about my efforts to produce a blue molly. A molly blue enough for my tastes doesn’t exist. This blog will provide an update. First, I’ll summarize the article. In ... Read More
Veiltail Swordtail
Photo: A female Veiltail Swordtail. A few months ago while processing our Blushing Swordtails I discovered an unusual female. She appeared to be a veiltail, but I wasn’t sure. Before continuing discussing that particular female, let me provide some background. Our breeding colony of Blushing ... Read More
Developing a Hifin Plumetail Blue Opal Maculatus
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
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
Labidochromis caeruleus ‘Gold’
Photo: A male Labidochromis caeruleus ‘Gold’ or ‘Lemon Yellow Lab.’ We raise a lot of African cichlids, especially those from Lake Malawi in East Africa. One of these is very popular with our aquarium maintenance customers due to its bright yellow coloration. This species is Labidochromis ... Read More
