Lyretail Swordies

Angry_Platy · Mar 8, 2005

I bought myself a lyretail male and female the other day.....my male must be young as he doesn't have much of a sword yet but his gonopodium is VERY impressive

My question is, being so large, will he be able to impregnate any of my girls? At the moment he is with a female platy, his lyretail friend and a couple of guppies. I am wanting to breed with him but will it be impossible?

Has anyone successfully bred with lyretail male swordies?

Polardbear · Mar 8, 2005

I think chances are very slim he will be able to impregnate your female, but it won't be from lack of trying! Most breeders will use either a regular fin or hi fin male with their lyretail females. The offspring is then a mix of reg fins, hi fins, lyretails and hi fin lyretails. The regular and hi fins from that breeding will carry the genes for the lyretail trait and when bred back to the lyretails will produce a higher percentage of the hi fins and lyretails.

I found an article a while back that details how to artificially inseminate your lyretail females with sperm from a lyretail male which gives an even higher percentage of lyretails. I've had my vet do artificial inseminations on a couple of dogs (back when I bred dogs), but I can't see myself doing fish that way! If I can find it I'll send it to you.

When I bought my 5 red hi fin lyretails they hadn't matured yet, 2 of them turned out to be males and they are the most "active" males I have. They never stop trying but they really don't have any success.