Oddball Swordtail Male...

[sarena_rye]

Just curious if anyone else has fry-desensitized breeders out there or females that only apparently like to drop entire broods of one color variation. Here's why...

I have ONE pair of mated swordtails (ONLY because my husband felt it was morally unfair to keep my then only male in with all my guppy females) in a simple ten gallon setup (fry are removed at two weeks old to a grow out tank). Now, as I said, the ONLY reason my pretty boy got a girlfriend is because my husband pushed the issue. He says "It's not right to keep that poor guy in a tank full of women that he can't have". So away we go to pick him up a woman. No sooner do we bring home our pretty common orange girlie than he is on her like white on rice lol. We'd had him in my female gup tank for four months, so he was pretty full up with frustration to vent.

Here comes the weird parts. While in the gup tank my male (who is a gorgeous glass and black, yep, I said glass and black) was one heck of a hunter, helping to cull out the weaker guppy fry before the two week limit hit and the remaining fry were moved to a grow out tank. I enjoyed no end of entertainment watching him cruise the waters searching out weaklings (evil I know, but natural selection must make it's stand).

Well, apparently after all that hunting he no longer wants to preserve the strongest of the fry He has turned into the most protective fish I've ever seen and confuses the heck out of me. He won't eat a single fry anymore To top off his oddball behavior, the female is apparently cursed with dropping ONLY one color fry each drop AND has had three drops of ALL FEMALES. I could just rip my hair out over that last part, as I would really adore a drop with just one darn male .

I give my pair credit though, as they recently provided me with just over a dozen fry that are orange/black. I can only hope that I get a male out of this (or maybe this will be the drop that turns into all males after all those drops of females, lol). The male is just plain gorgeous to me as he's the first I'd seen with the glass/black coloring. I adore it and hope a few of the most recent drop lighten out to look like him .

So yep, anyone else have oddball swords that just won't eat their fry or produce two genders of fish? Or is my pair just a throwback from another universe?

 

[modaz]

its all done to chromozones that your male has, obviuosly its just fluke that the X chromozone is fertilizing her eggs, thats why all female, suppose it like humans trying for a boy when they have a tribe if not generations of females.

maybe IVF selection is an option.....................sorry darling i could'nt resist that one

 

[theotheragentm]

Livebearers breed far larger numbers of female than males, just like the ratio in nature. Males may not develop right away. A lot of times people confuse a late developing male as a sex change. How old are the fry? Also, in the presence of a mature male, the development of other males may be much slower.

 

[modaz]

its all done to chromozones that your male has, obviuosly its just fluke that the X chromozone is fertilizing her eggs, thats why all female, suppose it like humans trying for a boy when they have a tribe if not generations of females.

maybe IVF selection is an option.....................sorry darling i could'nt resist that one

my word what bad spelling i have tonight

 

[sarena_rye]

*giggles* I would SO try IVF if it were possible lmao. This darn natural system just isn't working for me lol.

As for the ages of the fry:
1st drop: currently 4 months old
2nd drop: just under 3 months old
3rd drop: just under 2 months old
latest drop: only three weeks old

I'm hoping at least a few of the older drops do eventually develop into males, but I'm not holding my breath as the oldest of the drops is already very clearly female Their is no male presence as up until this last drop they have all been removed to grow out tanks. I'm just giving this last drop a little more time in the tank with my pair until I move them also. It gives my pair their space to have the fry moved out and the female is much happier with the fry out of the tank (then again I would be too if I had well over a dozen kids in the house with me and someone took them all out to the park lol).

I'm just glad I have enough tanks to cover all the fry I have lol. Between my swords and my gups there are always new fry to be moved lol.

 

[modaz]

you can say that again, all mine dropped within hours of eachother, managed to catch 35ish of assortment of gups, platys and high fin sunset platys. your lucky with your male, all my fish are hovering around trap willing it to sink.

 

[sarena_rye]

LOL! That gives me inspiration for a new sketch . I swear to post it later on once it's done hehe.

And yep, he's the strangest male I've seen now. I had never heard of a swordtail that wouldn't eat it's own children before and I hope I'm not the only one out there as I'd hate to be the only one with no choice but to raise every darn fry that drops. I swear if it keeps up I'm taking his girlfriend away from him again .

 

[modaz]

look forward to seeing it
got a cory that surfs on the water level and keeps head butting the trap, im sure hes in on the plan as well,

you must be keeping them well fed there for him not to take the chance at having a good feast, some livebearers are good at not eating fry, not unusual at all just rare.

you could always go to LFS and swap him with a female and tell your husband his tail fell off, but then you would have to get one the same colour oh well maybe not

you got any pics of this little boy then.....your fish that is

by the way what is glass and black, never had swords so not hot on colouring, only seen greeny-ish and black and oranges ones at LFS

 

[mnbyiuopre]

My swordtails won't eat my fry either. But my platys make up for it! They are little demons when it comes to fry.

 

[sarena_rye]

I plan to take pics of everyone in a couple weeks once we get everything moved to our new place as the lighting here is awful for pictures . I'll make sure to post them. He is one of the most interesting looking swords I've seen lol. He has the typical black down his sides, but you can see clear through him in any part that isn't black . I've tried to cut back his feed a bit during fry time but that hasn't helped lol, and I doubt I'll find a female that matches him, though I love the idea

LOL I'd get a couple platys to throw in there, but I hate the thought of him getting frisky with a platy. Something about having to raise cross fry and then find a way to get rid of them just bugs me .

 

[mnbyiuopre]

My swords never do anything with the platys. No cross breeds or anything. It's nice knowing you don't have to raise fragile fry.

 

[sarena_rye]

LOL, this boy would likely jump the platys as much as his girlfriend. He's STILL wound up from being in with those guppy females lol. I think perhaps I've created a fishy sexual predator .