New Female Lyretail Swordtail

[bleechme]

Oh didn't notice that is was at the petstore, well keep looking

No this these fish in the pictures are mine in my tank. These are not at the petstore. I own these two females and I don't have a male.

 

[blitztidus]

Oh didn't notice that is was at the petstore, well keep looking

No this these fish in the pictures are mine in my tank. These are not at the petstore. I own these two females and I don't have a male.

I know that that, I meant just the male sorry for the confusion

 

[bleechme]

^ Oh; ok got cha! lol

 

[bleechme]

YEA!!!! female #1 gave birth today to 12 babies! don't know how many where eaten before I realised she was dopping babies!

 

[fishRfriends]

Woohoo!! *fingers crossed* that the babies are lyretails. I never knew that about the males not being able to mate well. Any ideas how early you can tell if the babies will be lyretails? If you can tell right away then none of mine our, they all have fantails so far Good luck with em!

 

[Polardbear]

Almost all male lyretails are incapable of "unassisted" breeding due to the excessive length of their gonopodiums. Lyretail males can be used by arteficial insemination techniques (for the brave and steady of hand) and reportedly will produce a higher number of lyretail offspring. If you use a regular finned or hi finned male you will get some lyretail fry (25-50%) and the rest will have the fin type of the non-lyretail parent.

You generally won't see the lyretail trait developing for several weeks. With my fry it's usually 5-7 weeks before it becomes fairly obvious. I've gotten to the point where I can guess pretty accurately by 3 weeks but I've been staring at fry with a magnifying glass for a few years now.

Here's a couple of pictures that will give you an idea of the difference in the gonopodiums of a lyretail male versus a regular finned male.

Lyretail male

Regular finned male

 

[bleechme]

For me, I've never had baby lyre tails before. This is my first time. I hope that they are lyretail babies. The store owner said if I want more Lyretail babies, I either have to breed them with young lyretail males or a a hi-fin male.

 

[blitztidus]

Can your trim the gonopodium without harming the fish? I have tried artificial, but that, I will never do ever again, worked, but too complicated.

 

[bleechme]

I have very high dubts on that one (about cuting off some of it's gonopodium). Although I used to have a regular swordtail that had a very short gonopodium, (It looked like a piece got bitten off) But if I really wanted more lyretail babies, I will probably have to artifically do it. but I've never done it before and am afirad to harm the fish.