Swordtails

[paudie22]

hi iv a 34 gallon tank wich i got off a friend and 8 swords came with it. at first i had 1 mature male 3 near mature males and four females. the mature male was 2 years old and died then the next biggest male got dropsy and died. so now im meant to have 2 males and four females but the biggest female (or so i thought) has started developing a sword and its fin has turned into a ginopodium or a male fin underneath not sure of the spelling.
also iv had the swords since august and have never witnessed any breeding of any sort

 

[crazycatfish]

Female swordtails can sometimesd change sex when old or diseased.

 

[fish48]

Female swordtails can sometimesd change sex when old or diseased.

hi
swordtails dont change sex some swordtails can take a long time to sex out some may take a year or moor . they all start of looking like females. what happens when a dominant male is removed the next one will take its placs and develep very fast or very old females can take on the characteristic of a male swordtail however they can not function as a normal male .

 

[kribensis12]

I had a HUGE female for over a year, and she was a mom to many LARGE batch's, and then she started to grow a sword and gonopudim( sp?). I read in a book called keeping and breeding tropical fish by Dr. Axelrod and it said that females can do this, but they never have viable sperm.

 

[helterskelter]

LOL fish48 is spot on.

Ive never seen a female change sex their just late devlopers or a he/she thing!!!
Dr. Axelrod LOL ok he did loads of books but i dont agree with what he's done in many area's......

 

[kribensis12]

How is dr. Axelrod off??

 

[helterskelter]

what do u mean?

 

[kribensis12]

Ohhh, when you said that you didnt agree with some of his work, i thought it said that you thought some of his work was off! Sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[LauraFrog]

I have heard of this happening with swords and platies (female grows gonopodium) but never seen it. I just found my oldest platy dead in labour. Fry got stuck and she went into fits again. This has happened before and I managed to save her but when I found her it was too late.

I still have some of her fry. She was a very prepotent fish, and has cloned herself. I have loads of little red spotty things swimming around my buckets, so I'm going to keep some. I loved her colours.