Lyretail sword

[Newman]

Haha, im trying desparetely to get a tank going for swordtails. I like them so much, from ever since i was a kid.

The black sword with red fins that chuy was talking about is called a Berlin Sword. a good article on getting this strain is found here:

Raising Black Swordtails
Kinda makes you want to breed for those huh xD

That link i provided, i believe he is asking $50 for the breeder trio, and an additional $45 for the express shipping. now thats expesive.

I live in a North part of New Jersey. You can find me on that "MFT map" thing in the ounge section on the forums.

If we did live close, that would be a cool idea.

I am Looking for swordtail ideas. I was thinking of getting a blood red or green swordtail. any other suggestions?

 

[no.1chuy]

i know you didnt ask me but i live in vegas just throwing it out there i know i dont have any fancy swords yet but one i get my 3 tanks organised i plan on getting some hi-fin lyre swordtail and i would much rather get them from a breeder than a lfs

 

[beckyd]

OK, so I guess none of us is within quick driving distance. Too Bad You two could always move here! Vegas is too touristy and Jersey is about to get way too cold. I'll go ahead and start house shopping for you!

Newman, that is a great article! Boggles my mind how much time and work goes into figuring out the genetics like that. I could get black lyres with a purchase of one good black male bred back to one of my girls. How cool is that?!

Anyway, my fry are looking to be a variety of colors. I thought they would all be red with a variety of tail variations. We'll see, but looks like some of them are getting a bit of black-like a wag-on their tails, and a few clearly look like the koi coloration. Is that really happening? They are small...

Newman, save your pennies(which would be alot easier if you didn't live in Jersey) and get those supersail reds. They're just too awesome. I've never seen even a decent green in person. You must have better fish stores around you then me.

Chuy- I don't know about your stores, but I have had MUCH better luck from breeders. I have only had one fish die since I started getting better quality fish sent to me. And that was a betta that came all the way from Thailand. She didn't die in transit either, I tried her in my 75g community tank and something isn't right for bettas in there. Too much action or current or something. Her brother is that gorgeous creature in my avatar. I then sent for 12 angels. They are getting so big, some will have to find new homes soon. Amazing superveils that only cost about $3 per fish including shipping! My third venture was these swords. I bought a trio of Black Moscow guppies in that same shipment. All the fish I have gotten from serious breeders through the mail are strong and healthy. Worth every penny.

Hopefully, I will get overpopulated and can send some of my best fry to you other sword lovers. No one around here would even appreciate how special their finnage is. It wouldn't feel right charging like the breeders. They develop them. I just feed them I give away mollies and guppies all the time on Craigslist. These swords hopefully won't fall into the same cute, but average category

 

[no.1chuy]

it sucks bout the distance thing..... here is another article about black swordtails http://http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/breeding/Drew_Black_swords.html
its kinda like the one newman posted

 

[Newman]

Broken Link... too bad =/

LOL house shopping.

I havent seen any green swortail males in my area, only females.

Becky its hard to tell their final color when they are very small (kinda like you cant tell a child's eye or hair color right away; it might change)
BUT, if you did get some Koi swords that would be great
The fish stores around me are not that great, as they dont carry a large variety of swords (or cories, which is another species im aiming for)

Becky, where the heck do you buy swords online for that cheap??
What kind of breeders are we talking about? Could you hook me up with their website or phone or ANYTHING. cuz i really dont want to pay $60 for 4 simple lyretail hifins (cheapest i can find them including shipping)

If you could share some of your new swords (even if it is at a price) I would gladly start with those as opposed to buying those supersails for $100+ LOL.

The supersails will be a sort of final test for me, once i know that i can breed swordtails in general.
You didnt mention where you lived, becky... im assuming its like in PA, or Georgia or something far from me/chuy.

 

[no.1chuy]

the link is broken but if you click on the did you mean ........ it'll take you there.
once you live in vegas and get over the strip you dont even notice the tourist

 

[Newman]

you know i would really love to go breed that berlin sword or the black lyretail hifin,but the only thing that prevents me from doing that, is the very long time it takes for black fry to mature ._. one year is forever in livebreeder years.

Ive been thinking of making blood red veiltail, just because it sounds easy: veiltail + blood red LOL

 

[no.1chuy]

im also a interested in breeding swordtails im hoping the lfs will stock healthy red hi-fin lyre swordtails or meeting a local breeder to buy some from. i wonder how hard it would be to breed your own strain of hi-fin swordtails or how long it would take oh yea have any of you seen a blue swordtail?

 

[Newman]

No, but i hear if you breed a blue wagtail platy to a swordtail, you might get a blue colored sword. Dont know which has to be the female, but im guessing the swordtail has to be female.

Blue wag sword can be viewed here:

http://www.bitterroottropicals.com/Blue_Wag_Swordtail.jpg

And theres a mystic blue sword that i have no idea how to get:

http://aqualandpetsplus.com/livebe83.jpg

 

[beckyd]

Which brings us back to our original problem: Where do you find a good blue platy? Not in my area. (which is Jacksonville FL, Chuy) And I would think it would take years and more culling than I would have the heart for to develop your own Line of anything. Especially in a breed that takes a year or more to mature. You're a much more patient person than I to even contemplate it.

Newman, my superveil ANGELS were only $3 each. Not my swords. My swords are from Jeff Hiller at jeffhiller.com. They were $15each plus 35 for shipping. He doesn't make any on the shipping either. I added a guppy trio for 25 and an extra $5 shipping and the shipping posted on the box was $39.

I would gladly share some fish. I must have at least 40 fry. They're almost big enough to go into the 75g. There is where the strongest will really start to grow and the weakest won't make it. I have a few tiny ones compared to the others, but a good number of strong looking little guys. A few still holding that koi look. And one that looks like it will remain a colorless albino. He's a tiny one though. I hope he makes it. Might have to hold him in the little tank longer for a boost. And the female that had them looks pregnant again The other two don't and I think they are likely younger than her. Probably not mature yet. They are almost as big, but shorter fins. And my male is big, but still has sort of a short sword. He's not mature yet. He barely shows any interest in the females. Definitely NOT sexually mature livebearer behavior

Any idea when I may be able to tell which fry will have lyretails?

I agree about that year to sexual maturity thing. That IS forever. However, I hear people say that all the time about pulling the males that sex out small. They prefer the bigger fish. I really don't care. I have had mollies sex out small and stay small. Right now I have a guppy that seems done growing and he's barely half the size of the others. I like him. I'm all about the fins, not the overall size. As long as the fins are proportionally impressive, I couldn't care less if they're small. Better, in fact because I can have more!

 

[Newman]

I have seen some blue platy at my Petco but i have no idea how to tell which is a male and a female ( i need a male for the blue swordtail)

The Blue wagtail platy will make more impressive swords that have more blue to them. I have never seen a bluewagtail platy in real life. so i guess thats our of the question (plus the blue male platy is WAAAY smaller than a female sword so...how do they...i cant imagine how it might workout)

I dont really know about the lyretail question, but i imagine that you could tell in about a month of their birthdate.

Thanks for the info becky. That Jeff guy has some crazy guppy strains, especially the ones he developed (the full black is amaizing)
Im guessing youre gonna get some koi swordtails because your swords are form that guy, and he breeds koi ones. (a fish line cant go pure red lyretail )

 

[beckyd]

LOL!!! You're killing me. You don't think a little blue platy can...ahem...get the job done with a big ole female sword? So...size DOES matter. Hahaha! I crack myself up OK, OK, I'll get serious. I think a little male platy would do fine. I have a male guppy that is always mating with my big fat balloon belly molly. She's like 3x his size.

So, after my earlier post about never having seen a blue platy, I stop at the LFS for some airstones and what do I see? Yep, two cute little blue platys in a tank full of reds. And someone is on the AB forum right now asking about blue platys. I swear more people are being inspired by our thread than we know

Maybe someone will pipe in about the age at which a lyre or hifin can be identified. I think a month is too soon, but that's comparing them to mollies. Anyone???

 

[Newman]

Yea, about the lyretail, that was just a guess.
I see you bought three black moscow guppies, i assume from jeff? those are wicked.

LOL, so youre saying that if i get a male blue platy (which is about 1 1/2") and put it in a tank with a virgin blood red female sword (which is literally almost 3"), They will mate and produce offspring?

cuz i have a few blood reds at a LFS in a female-only tank. they do not look pregnant at all and have been there for a month now, so ill assume theyre virgins.

On the male blue platy, is the only way to tell the diff between male and female, to look at the gonopodium? platys do have those right? and the female should have a regular fan-shaped fin back there?

I might be just curious enough to try this...

 

[Newman]

Also, does anyone know if a platy and swordtail hybrid in the form of a swordtail would be fertile?

 

[beckyd]

Platy/sword hybrids are fertile as I understand it. That is how they got the blood red into the sword line in the first place, I think. I don't think swords naturally have that deep red coloration, so our blood red swords are hybrids by definition. I think you should do it. I was at the LFS today. The blue platies were gone, but I was looking at them just out of curiosity to sex them. I was kind of tempted to get one whether I could sex it or not, as I have both sexes of swords. I have no platies, so the only option in my tank is to mate with a sword. Heck if I could tell the males from the females, but they were all kind of crowded and keeping their fins in. I'm sure they must have a gonopodium because they can mate with swords. Seems like a requirement for that. I'd have paid more attention if I had read this before I went.

Yes, I got my Black Moscows from Jeff. The male is as black as my black molly. Gorgeous. The females are his 'extended fin'. Their dorsal trails almost as long as their caudal fin. I'll get a picture of them soon. One female is young, but the other had her first brood last night. I didn't think she was that close. I was excited. She was too, because now she's in the 75g instead of a cramped 5g, but I wanted those babies! Gonna brag about them in their own thread

 

[Newman]

Good to know they're fertile.

Yea, they got the blood red line from breeding a green sword and a red wagtail platy.

Platy, as ive found to have something that looks like a gonopodium. if you cant see it just look for a pointy anal fin. thats a male. well youre right it would be harder to tell if they kept their fins in...

The guppies sound wicked, how much did you pay for the trio again, with shipping?

 

[kenny1tothe6]

OMG...this is off topic but beckyd...You live in Jacksonville, FL?

I'm moving to St. Augustine in maybe a year or 2!!

And oh do I LOVE swordtails. LOL

The pair of swords in my avatar are actually from Walmart and they have lived so far and have been doing great!

They are....Pineapple Swordtails...Sadly, I'm leaving them with my mom when I go cuz I don't think I'm taking the 55gal tank....it's just TOOO big....lol.

 

[Newman]

Dude, those swords look epic. nice shot too.
Maybe you and becky can exchange fry if you settle close enough lol. Personally i would do that if i was in your position.

 

[kenny1tothe6]

Newman, Yeah...those swords are awesome!! Sadly, my betta hated them:

Haha, he looks soooo pissed!!

I would LOVE to trade fry with her...but her fish are kinda expensive...so, I'd rather just buy them...If my fish spawn, no matter how rare, I'd LOVE to give them away to hobbyists who would love them and take good care of them....

 

[Newman]

Something along those lines, if i ever get a hold of a Super sailfin blood red sword pair, and manage to breed them, i could theoretically give some of the fry to a LFS so people could buy them for less than $70 online haha. I bet the LFS would love me too for supplying them with such beautiful and rare fish.