it this a guppy, platy, or guppy-platy? Or is it something different?



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Platy, and a very pretty one. There is no such thing as a guppy platy corss, it isnt possible. Do you have a bigger pic? It appears to be female, but i cant tell that well, because the pic is sooo small.

My first guess would be a female sword. Looks too long and thin to be a platy and definitely not a guppy. As krib said a good picture would make this easier.

Looks like a Variatus platy as they often have red tails. Males has bright red tails while females have dull red tails. It could be Variatus/Swordtail hybrid as these days there's no pure Xiphophorus species in the average LFS. It appeared that this platy has gavid spot which its pointless as both sexes of Variatus has gravid spot.

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heres one!!!








This post has been edited by fishboy1232: May 21 2008, 10:59 AM

body shape is too long for a platy, its the tail thats got me puzzled, i did think swordtail but looks too short

ooohooohoooo newbie alert (me).
I know this is my first post....i'm actually a very experienced fishkeeper, I just never joined a forum for it before!!
Anyway, back to the topic in hand...This is definiatly nothing to do with a guppy and as someone pointed out the tail is a strange shape so it is probably a cross off some sort either within the platy variation boundries or with a swordtail. Just be careful when breeding from it (if you do) as you don't want any strange crosses!!

I said VARIATUS platy, which is slender type platy. There are two species of platy in the aquarium trade. The deepbodied ones are Southern Platy (Xiphophorus maculatus) while the slender bodied are Variatus platy (Xiphophorus variatus)

oo i didn't know there was two different types of platy, guess you do learn something new everyday

I just realized, looking at the picture, that the body shape really resembles ameca splendens more than what we have been thinking and guessing, especially the way the tail sits on the caudal peduncle. I have never seen one that color though.

for those of you that may not of seen ameca splendens
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a male ameca splendens

Your a newbie here, and i've really respected your posts, agreeing to almost everything you have said, but this draws the line. There is no way on Gods green earth that it is a Ameca Spelden. Nuff Said. I still vote for Variatus Platy IMO =]

This post has been edited by kribensis12: May 22 2008, 02:52 AM

I'm 99% sure that its a female swordtail, not a female platy- the female livebearer is a little too long/slender lengthways and has a strong head to be a female platy.
Compare the fish with these female swordtails and you will see their resemblance is very strong;

http://www.aqua-fish.net/imgs/fish2/swordtail-2-female.jpg

http://www.funfishtank.com/wp-content/uplo...8/swordtail.jpg

Etc.
Mollys don't come in the color red so we can certainly rule those out, and i would say that the fish is definately not a guppy- it looks similar to a female platy, however based on my observations i would say its much more likely to be a female swordtail .

edit: some pics to compare;

Female swordtail;


Female platy;


This post has been edited by Tokis-Phoenix: May 22 2008, 06:55 AM

It appeared that this fish MAY be male as we never see the anal fin. Im sure this is 99.999% Variatus platy. Not swordtail as its dorsal fin placement and the caudal fin doesn't look right for a swordtail.

Tokis do you know there are two different species of platy in aquarium trade?

Yes i'm well aware there are two types of platys (X. variatus and X. maculatus), and its another posibility that its a variatus, however i've opted for a female swordtail (for now) since at least from what i have seen female swordtails are more common than variatus platys. To be honest there are only slight difference between the two fish and the pictures are a bit blurred, only the owner of the fish can really tell us what he thinks it is after looking at all the pics etc.

This post has been edited by Tokis-Phoenix: May 22 2008, 01:38 PM

this is a female that turn into a male!!!!!!

This is a female swordtail.

Are you sure? The anal fin on male livebearers is pointed, while the females have a fan shaped fin, see the pic below;

(Male top, female below);

http://www.geocities.com/sroshtt1/masi/fish/platy2.jpg

If it is a male, then its probably a platy.

What you are all forgetting is that most platys available nowadays are all crosses between maculatas and variatus and some are even swrdtail crosses!!!
Most of the time it is hard to tell!!!!!!