Goliad Farms, LP - Xiphophorus 'Brick Red Wag Hifin Lyretail Swordtail'

Goliad Farms, LP

8497 FM 622
Goliad, Texas 77963

Voice 361.645.2252
Fax 361.645.2258
Email goliadfish@goliadfarms.com

Contents

Fish

Swordtail

Redwag Hifin Lyretail Swordtail

The Redwag Hifin Lyretail Swordtail is a North American livebearer related to and in the same genus, Xiphophorus, as the platies. ( Click here for a general discussion of the genus Xiphophorus.) (Click here for a general discussion of swordtails) Most commercial strains of swordtails have mixed heritage, including ancestors from X. helleri, X. maculatus and X. variatus. Commercial swordtails are primarily descended from X. helleri. The top photo is a mature male (about six months old). The bottom photo is a mature female. This strain is descended from fish acquired from a friend, Bobby Ellermann, in Houston in 2003.

Size: Males often reach 7.5cm (3 in.), not counting the swordtail. Females are somewhat larger and much heavier.

Description: Both sexes have red bodies and black fins. Males like all swordtails have an extended "sword" from the bottom margin of caudal. Both sexes sport a lyretail, which are extensions of the top and bottom edges of the caudal as well as an enlarged dorsal called a hifin. The male pictured sports the elongated gonopodium characteristic of lyretails. The pictured female has elongated middle fin rays in the caudal, a characteristic of some strains.

Environment: This fish tolerates pHs from 6.5 to 8.0 while preferring the higher end (basic) of this range. Water hardness is not critical, but it prefers hard water. Optimum temperature ranges from 20-30°C (68-85°F).

Geographic Range: This fish has no natural range, but of its ancestors hail from Mexican and Central America.

Temperament: This fish is not aggressive and is active. It can be kept either in a single species aquarium or in active community aquaria with rainbowfish, other livebearers or other fish with similar behavior and requirements.

Feeding: Feeding is simple with the fish taking prepared foods as well as live and frozen foods. Periodic feedings of Daphnia or other live foods are helpful in color maintenance, general health and breeding.

Spawning: This livebearer breeds like other members of its genus. At 30°C (85°F), broods are delivered about every 28 days. Broods can be as large as 100 fry for mature females. Like other Poeciliidae, the females can store sperm and have as many as 8 broods from a single mating. The fry are large and can eat commercial food, Daphnia, brine shrimp nauplii, etc. immediately. Adults will eat fry, so they must have some protection such as dense fine-leafed plants to survive. Males are constantly courting and chasing the females, stopping only to spar with other males or eat. Additionally, male swordtails with the lyretail characteristic are functionally sterile, being unable to to inject sperm into the females due to a very elongated gonopodium. We, like most breeders of lyretails, use non-lyretail males of the same strain to breed to lyretail females. Since the lyretail characteristic is a dominant characteristic, matings of non-lyretail males to lyretail females will produce roughly fifty percent lyretails and fifty percent non-lyretails.

Additional Information: For more information about this species, click on one of the following article names:

Additional Photos: For additional photos of this species, click on one of the following photo locations:

Page last modified June 5, 2007.