What type of swordtails are these

[kcaskew]

I just got a bunch of swordtails the other day, 1 adult female, this male, an adolescent female, and several babies of varying age.

All the swordtails have the same coloring. It's like an orangish color. The adult female has like a golden belly (she is very pregnant), the male (unsure of age) has a black stripe on his tail, the other female has some black on her tail. Some babies are all orangish, white other have some black.


Can anyone tell me what species of swordtail this is. The person who gave them to me said they are "fancy" swordtails, but I can't find any info about fancy swordtails!

Pic is of the male. He is the only one I could get a picture of. The babies and younger female are hidden in the plants. The big one is hiding behind the sponge filter.

 

[Colin_T]

Can anyone tell me what species of swordtail this is. The person who gave them to me said they are "fancy" swordtails, but I can't find any info about fancy swordtails!

Xiphophorus hellerii x Xiphophorus maculatus.

The X. hellerii are a type of swordtail that was hybridised with X. maculatus (a type of platy) many years ago. They used the platy to add more colour to the swordtails.

In the aquarium industry they are just called orange swordtails.

 

[emeraldking]

Yours is a red swordtail. There's a thin line between being orange and red in swordtails and platies. It comes down to the intensity of the coloration wether it's an orange or red specimen. From your photos, we'd determine them as being red.

There's a lot of info about the fancy swordtails. But most of the time if you'd google fancy swordtails, you should just google "swordtails". For most info are focused on fancy swordtails. Fancy swordtails are all the swordtails that have been specifically captive bred for the aquarium scene. The fancy strains of swordtails were derived from the Xiphophorus hellerii. The Xiphophorus hellerii is only one kind of a large number of wild swordtails that are totally not Xiphophorus hellerii. But the Xiphophorus hellerii is the most wide spread wild swordtail species of all of them.
The first steps to breed fancy swordtails were with natural mutations of the Xiphophorus helleri. Later on, they were also mixed up with Xiphophorus maculatus to create more color variaties. People should know that depending on the location of collection in te wild, both Xiphophorus hellerii and Xiphophorus maculatus show different coloration and pattern. But in the wild there are also plain looking specimens of both species.
Does the color red occur in the wild in swordtails? Yes, depending on the strain and/or location. But I do have to say that such specimens are not born red but they are born as green swordtails. In certain strains of wild ones, males can turn red as being green swordtails. This has got to do with the pecking order. Very dominant males of certain swordtail species show their visible dominance by turning red (partially or total coverage). One of those wild swordtails species, is the Yucatan swordtail (Xiphophorus yucatan).
Although, we determine wild swordtails as green swordtail, there aren't that many wild swordtails that are actually green as a base color. They differ from yellow, green, brown, grey and bluish. But for most wild ones we call them green swordtail with the exception of some smaller wild swordtail species. With a number of those, we call the wild coloration blue (they're not actually blue).
So, it's not that all fancy swordtails are a result of crossing swordtail with platy. But most strains we know nowadays are.
And do you know that a Mickey Mouse swordtail or platy, that the Mickey Mouse mark on the caudal penducle ain't a fancy trait but actually wild trait.

 

[kcaskew]

Xiphophorus hellerii x Xiphophorus maculatus.

The X. hellerii are a type of swordtail that was hybridised with X. maculatus (a type of platy) many years ago. They used the platy to add more colour to the swordtails.

In the aquarium industry they are just called orange swordtails.

OMG, thank you SOO much!!

 

[kcaskew]

Yours is a red swordtail. There's a thin line between being orange and red in swordtails and platies. It comes don to the intensity of the coloration wether it's an orange or red specimen. From your photos, we'd determine them as being red.

There's a lot of info about the fancy swordtails. But most of the time if you'd google fancy swordtails, you should just google "swordtails". For most info are focused on fancy swordtails. Fancy swordtails are all the swordtails that have been specifically captive bred for the aquarium scene. The fancy strains of swordtails were derived from the Xiphophorus hellerii. The Xiphophorus hellerii is only one kind of a large number of wild swordtails that are totally not Xiphophorus hellerii. But the Xiphophorus hellerii is the most wide spread wild swordtail species of all of them.
The first steps to breed fancy swordtails were with natural mutations of the Xiphophorus helleri. Later on, they were also mixed up with Xiphophorus maculatus to create more color variaties. People should know that depending on the location of collection in te wild, both Xiphophorus hellerii and Xiphophorus maculatus show different coloration and pattern. But in the wild there are also plain looking specimens of both species.
Does the color red occur in the wild in swordtails? Yes, depending on the strain and/or location. But I do have to say that such specimens are not born red but they are born as green swordtails. In certain strains of wild ones, males can turn red as being green swordtails. This has got to do with the pecking order. Very dominant males of certain swordtail spcies show their visible dominance by turning red (partially or total coverage). One of those wild swordtails species, is the Yucatan swordtail (Xiphophorus yucatan).
Although, we determine wild swordtails as green swordtail, there aren't that many wild swordtails that are actually green as a base color. They differ from yellow, green, brown, grey and bluish. But for most wild ones we call the green swordtail with the exception of some smaller wild swordtail species. With a number of those, we call the wild coloration blue (they're not actually blue).
So, it's not that all fancy swordtails are a result of crossing swordtail with platy. But most strains we know nowadays are.
And do you know that a Mickey Mouse swordtail or platy, that the Mickey Mouse mark on the caudal penducle ain't a fancy trait but actually wild trait.

Thats some awesome information, I did not know any of that! Thank you so much!! I can't wait to learn more.