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
platies
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
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
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
Redtail Blue Variatus
Photo: A very nice male Redtail Blue Variatus either challenging another male or displaying for a female. We raise a variety of Variatus-type Platies. I say “Variatus-type” because while they look like Xiphophorus variatus (Variegated Platy), they are commercial strains and might have genes from ... Read More
Red Sailfin Molly
The photo shows two juvenile Red Sailfin Mollies (above) and a red Swordtail/Platy hybrid (below, for color contrast). I continue to work on new molly strains. For a long time now I’ve wanted to develop a Red Sailfin Molly. I’ve tried various crosses with no discernible progress. Then, about a ... Read More
Red Tuxedo Plumetail Platies
We have been busy transferring the plumetail characteristic to all of our platies, both maculatus type and variatus type. For an idea of what a plumetail is, see the photo of a male. Then compare it to the photo of a male without a plumetail. Plumetail is a dominant gene. I originally raised ... Read More
Blue Iridescent Sword
Once again the urge to create a new fish struck. So, today, while going through our blue mickey mouse maculatus, I imagined the iridescent blue of the platies on a swordtail. I selected a few female platies and, after some thought, picked a male swordtail to father the new color strain. Which sword ... Read More
White Mickey Mouse Sword
Today, while sorting through our White Mickey Mouse Maculatus Platies to select breeders for our breeding colony, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have this color pattern on a swordtail?” No sooner than thought, I set aside eight female platies. After finishing with the platies, I picked a ... Read More