Painted Swordtails - Are They Weak, Or Is It Me?

[AllAboutSwords]

Out of all of the Swords, Painted are my all-time favorite. I have lots of different kinds and I'm trying to breed a true black sword - not like the black thats out there now, but the solid, dark black that makes up the spots on a Painted. I can raise Red Wag fry without even trying, and I've been successful with Golden Sunsets, Neons, and Mickey Mouse. I have several Painted males and females, so usually most of my fry drops have some half breed Painteds in them, and I get purebreeds from newly purchased Painted females. For some reason, I'm failing miserably with their fry. They seem to just disappear, or I find them stuck to the filter when no other kind of babies have lost their lives to the very weak filter in the fry tank. The last batch I caught when the female was halfway done dropping - I got about 16 fry from her before she finished. Usually, I keep the fry in a filterless, small tank alone for one week, or more if they are still small and I find myself worrying about their strength or size compared to the other babies in the fry tank. This last time, I kept them in the smaller tank and babied them until they were three weeks old and considerably larger. I didn't lose any. I did weekly water changes and used my turkey baster to clean the bottom of the tank daily. I moved them to a 20L with other young fish, and 15 disappeared. I checked the filter and there are no dead babies in there. What's the deal? Why can I do all the other kinds of fish except this one?

Any help would be greatly appreciated - I'm starting to get frustrated. I get so excited when I see new babies with black spots, and so sad when they're gone later.

Jessica

 

[OldMan47]

You may be seeing the effects that researchers have been looking at for many years. Swordtails were selected to perform research on skin cancer because it was found easy to induce melanomas in them. Have a look at the paper posted here.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The Xiphphorus Genetic Stock center founded by Dr. Myron Gordon still exists today.

Dr. Gordon realized that to precisely identify the genes responsible for development of cancer, scientists would require genetically identical platyfish and swordtails for research. Therefore, in 1939, he established the Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center, housed at the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Aquarium until 1993, when transfer of the stock center to Texas State University - San Marcos was completed. During its more than 70 years, the stock center has been directed by Dr. Gordon and Dr. Klaus D. Kallman in New York, and currently by Dr. Ronald Walter at Texas State University - San Marcos.

They have a web site which can be found here http/www.xiphophorus.txstate.edu/

 

[AllAboutSwords]

Hmmm. That's interesting. And a LOT of information

As for now, I took the most recent batch and added it to the other fry and I'm doing my best with water changes and feeding. I took out the three best colored fry and moved them to a little itty bitty 1gaT, and named them Larry, Moe, and Curly. I'm centering my attention on them as much as I can and hopefully it'll pay off. It's a lot of work for three small fry, but hey... If one day I get a solid true black sword, it'll be worth it.