This species of swordtail is only very rarely offered in the trade. At the first glimpse one may think that they are a variety of the common swortail X. hellerii, but the species X. signum is much more slender. The mark that is responsible for the scientific name (latin signum = sign) is always good visible in females on the caudal fin base, while in males it is covered by the dark border of the sword.
Xiphophorus signum is, like most wild types of swordtail, quite demanding. It needs clear, bacteria poor water and a proper feeding with different types of food, including frozen and live food. Our specimens are German bred ones. We can currently offer XXL animals.
When you first see this slender, splendidly colored swordtail wild form, you involuntarily think: this is no X. hellerii! And yet, when X. hellerii was first described in 1848, exactly such animals became the type specimens. The traveler of the royal imperial horticultural society Karl Heller discovered and collected the animals in clear streams of the mountain Orizaba in Mexico (the highest mountain of Mexico and third highest of North America) and was already enthusiastic about the colorfulness of the fish at that time. At that time, however, aquaristics did not yet exist, so Heller could only send his new discovery to Vienna dead and faded in alcohol.
About 50 years later, in 1902, Meek described the Jalapa swordtail again under the name Xiphophorus jalapae, which is of course a younger synonym for the typical X. hellerii. On the other hand, it’s not so sure whether the “ordinary” Green Swordtail, which we have in the aquarium since 1909, is actually the same species as the “real” X. hellerii (the Jalapa form).
In comparison to “ordinary” green swordtails, the colors of the Jalapa swordtail look like painted on the body with neon pencils. They are really wonderful fish. Regarding care and breeding the Jalapa swordtails do not differ however from the “usual” green swordtails.
We get our specimens from a German breeder.
For our customers: the animals have code 476595 on our stocklist. Please note that we only deliver to wholesalers.
We have just obtained very attractive offspring of the “Northern Mountain Swordtail”. The fish are young adults, i.e. the sword of the males is still relatively short. For comparison we show here also an adult pair of another strain.
In former times X. nezahualcoyotl was considered as a local variant of X. montezumae. The name refers to Nezahualcoyotl,the poet philosopher emperor of Tezcoco (Texcoco), considered to be coequal with Montezuma, monarch of the Aztecs in the Aztec Triple Alliance, because the species is to be considered a sister taxon of X. montezumae. X. nezahualcoyotl is found only in the headwaters of some rivers in the state of San Lous Potosi in Mexico. The water there is clear, the soil stony, the temperatures moderate (22-24°C). Care of this small-bodied swordtail – body length rarely exceeds 4 cm (the largest wild-caught male measured had 48 mm standard length), plus fins – is not very difficult, but care must be taken to maintain good water hygiene.
The species may appear with or without black mottling. The black speckling, as shown by the animals of our currently stocked strain, is linked to the Y-chromosome, so it is inherited from the father.
For our customers: the animals have code 476562 on our stock list. Please note that we only supply wholesale.
This species of swordtail is only very rarely offered in the trade. At the first glimpse one may think that they are a variety of the common swortail X. hellerii, but the species X. signum is much more slender. The mark that is responsible for the scientific name (latin signum = sign) is always good visible in females on the caudal fin base, while in males it is covered by the dark border of the sword.
Xiphophorus signum is, like most wild types of swordtail, quite demanding. It needs clear, bacteria poor water and a proper feeding with different types of food, including frozen and live food. Our specimens are German bred ones.
For our customers: the fish have code 476655 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
The “pointed tail” mutation, in which the middle caudal fin rays are elongated, appeared relatively late: the first specimens appeared on the market in the 1980s. It originated in the Southeast Asian large-scale breederies.
The characteristic, which first appeared in the Platy (Xiphophorus maculatus), can also be transferred to other Xiphos, but the pointed tail has really become established in the long term only in Wagtail Platys. Here it is especially the red breeding forms, which are offered with pointed tail. Because with very large and old animals the innermost rays can grow somewhat over the fin, one calls this breeding form sometimes also “brush tail”. Apart from the fin shape, the pointed tails are quite normal platys: lively, colorful and robust.
For our customers: the animals have code 442103 on our stoclist. Please note that we supply exclusively to wholesalers.
We have already introduced several wild strains of Xiphophorus variatus, which rightly bears its scientific species name (variatus = variable).
Now we have again two new variants on offer, both are German bred ones, descended from wild populations. The first is a pretty speckled fish discovered and brought back on a scientific collecting trip in Mexico. It comes from the area around Hotel Taninul (Carretera Km. 15, 79250, Tampico, Valles, 79250 Cd Valles, S.L.P., Mexico). Located in a natural park, “Set inside the Huasteca, a 740-acre ecological preserve, this rural resort hotel surrounded by tropical forest is 17 km from the town of Tamuín and 19 km from the center of Ciudad Valles.” (quoted from the hotel’s promotional website). Near the hotel grounds flows a nameless sulfurous brook and from it came the said X. variatus. Other fish species living in the brook were Poecilopsis gracilis, Astyanax mexicanus, Poecilia formosa and unspecified aquatic turtles.
The second form was found by the same expedition along road 85 in a drainage near Mante towards Victora (11 km north of Mante at km 105). There is no publication on this so far, this information was passed on orally. Therefore, so far there is only the provisional designation “1243” made in the field notes. This Platy is rather interesting than beautiful, because one looks for color with him in vain. Interesting are the strong melanophores in the front half of the body and the dark reticulation in the middle of the rear, which gives the impression of a longitudinal band. This variety will hardly be able to establish in the hobby, here is probably an unique buying opportunity for specialized friends of livebearers, while “Hotel Taninul” will certainly find its friends, especially since the males with increasing age develop increasingly strong yellow tones in the fins and back, as the breeder told us.
For our customers: “Hotel Taminul” has code 443095, “1243” code 443093 on our stocklist. There are limited quantities of both varieties available. Please note that we only supply to wholesalers.
Hearing the name Tabasco, the first thing that comes to mind for a Central European is the spicy chili sauce. However, the Platy (Xiphophorus maculatus) that bears this name is neither particularly fiery nor particularly red – it merely originates, like the chili sauce, from the Mexican state of Tabasco, where this population was first found by Dutch ornamental fish enthusiasts and brought to Europe (more informations on that are in preparation).
The basic coloration of the animals is an inconspicuous gray; what makes them very special is the golden bordered shoulder spot, which many (but not all) animals show. This characteristic is also known from populations from the Mexican state of Veracruz. So far this “Admiral´s epaulette” has not been crossed into breeding lines. Other interesting features of this wild platy from Tabsco are the partially transparent gill cover, resulting in a red spot, and a highly variable tail root pattern that can be completely absent, form a double crescent, or a Mickey Mouse pattern.
The particular challenge in long term breeding of such fish is to maintain variability. It is all too easy to succumb to the temptation of selecting particularly pretty specimens, which results in a uniform type after only a few generations that no longer has much in common with the wild population. To avoid this, as many color variants as possible from the respective population should be allowed to swim in the largest possible mixed shoal. This at least increases the probability that the diversity of forms of a population prevailing in nature will also be preserved among the offspring born in the aquarium.
For our customers: the animals have code 476577 on our stocklist. Please note that we supply exclusively to wholesalers.
From a German breeder we received this extraordinarily attractive wild form of the swordtail. Unfortunately we could not find out where exactly and by whom these animals were collected. It could only be determined that they were originally brought from Yucatan (Mexico). As a distinction to the completely different looking X. hellerii “Yucatan” (see https://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/fish-archives/xiphophorus_hellerii_yucatan_en/) the animal is called Xiphophorus hellerii “Yucatan 2”.
Besides the attractive coloration Xiphophorus hellerii “Yucatan 2” stands out due to its peaceful nature. It is well known that males of the swordtails can be quite incompatible with each other, but the males of “Yucatan 2” are a laudable exception to this rule, according to the breeder!
For our customers: the animals have code 476759 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesale.
With the swordtails (Xiphophorus), the males carry a sword-like extension at the low end of the tail fin in many species. This is a luxury structure, that serves the intraspecific communication. Sword-bearing males appear especially sexy on the females and especially intimidating on male conspecifics. The also with primates (the ape-like animals) well known game “who has the longest” always wins Xiphophorus montezumae with the Xiphos.
We have now once again received a small number of offspring of this magnificent swordtail, which has a comparatively limited distribution area in nature (rivers in the state of San Lous Potosi, on the Atlantic side of Mexico). Since the Montezuma swordtail prefers relatively low temperatures (18-22°) for permanent keeping – it does no harm if the temperatures climb above 24°C in summer – it grows rather slowly. The species is also by far not as productive as for example Green Swordtails (X. hellerii), the litters usually include much less than 20 young. This explains why this beauty will always remain a rarity in the hobby.
For the care it is important that one has to pay attention to constantly good water quality. Generous weekly partial water changes are therefore absolutely necessary. The water should preferably be hard and the pH should be in the slightly alkaline range (8 – 8.5). A good flake food can be the nutritional basis, in addition one feeds frost and live food of all kinds. Regular feeding of Artemia nauplii (also to adult fish, 2-3 times a week) has proved very successful.
For our customers: the fish have code 420143 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
The sword platy, Xiphophorus xiphidium, belongs to the top rarities among the live-bearers. The species is found on the headwaters of the Soto La Marina River and its tributaries, Tamaulipas State, on the Atlantic side of Mexico. The very pretty species remains with approx. 3 cm (male) resp. 4 cm (female) clearly smaller than the common Platy (Xiphophorus maculatus). Since both species can cross in the aquarium, one should refrain in view of the rarity of X. xiphidium from maintaining it together with its close relatives.
There are sword platies that look slightly different, for example those with a circular spot on the tail base, those with two small dots or with a crescent moon. Since these different colour forms also represent different populations, one should also pay attention to pure breeding on this level. Currently we have a variant without any tail pattern in stock.
Young males look very similar to females, also because they also have a “pregnancy spot”. Fully developed adult alpha males are very attractive fish with their tiger pattern.
The care and breeding of the sword platy is much more demanding than that of the ordinary platy. Above all, X. xiphidium should not be kept too warm, preferably at room temperature without additional heating.
For our customers: the animals have code 476702 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesalers.
The pretty swordtail breeding form Xiphophorus hellerii Wagtail Red White is still young, it was only created in our millennium. The animals are descendants of the red and white “Koi swordtails”, which by the way are mostly born red and in which the white areas only develop with increasing growth.
These fish have less silvery scale dye (guanine) than “normal” swordtails, therefore the gill covers appear transparent, the blood-red gills shimmer through. The red body colour in the red-white Koi swordtails – and thus also in the black-finned Wagtail variant – appears for the same reason as a kind of transparent orange-red, which gives it its special charm.
For our customers: the animals have code 420043 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
For the first time ever we can offer this dwarf swordtail rarity. Our animals are German offsprings. At first sight the small, only 2-3 cm long animals remind of the also dwarf X. pygmaeus, but they are not so closely related to this species. Only in 1990 X. continens was formally described, first collected in 1984.
They are very pretty fish, which require attentive water care. They are inhabitants of running water and want low-germ, oxygen-rich water. Medium-hard water with a pH between 7 and 8 is best suited for care, temperatures can be between 20 and 24°C (occasionally a little below or above). Every common fish food is eaten when it is small enough. Without live food (2-3 times a week) the dwarf swordtails will wither; Artemia nauplii have proven to be very useful as supplementary food.
For our customers: the animals have code 476542 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
The wild type of the “normal” Platys (Xiphophorus maculatus) is cared for as good as never in the aquarium. This is partly due to the fact that “the” wild type of the Platy does not exist at all, but a large number of colour variants, which partly only occur locally, but partly also in different populations. Already between 1912 and 1934 different such colour variants were imported and bred in the aquarium, so “pulchra” (= the beautiful one), “rubra” (= the red one), “nigra” (= the black one) or “cyanellus” (= the blue one). The fact that these are not independent species, but only colour variations, is made clear by the fact that several variants often occur at the same locality. These colour variants form the basis for the many Platy breeding forms that exist today in the aquarium.
Despite the many breeding forms, wild types are desirable and interesting fish, because they show us the breeding choice of nature, not the taste of human breeders. One such wild form is the Belize Purple, which Harry Grier collected in 2003 at a place called “Kate´s Lagoon” on the Belize River.There do occur four colour variants: body red (br), which are the “Belize Purple”, but also spotted dorsal (sd), iridescent blue (blue) and wild type body (+). The abbreviations in brackets indicate the genetic code used internationally by Platy researchers.
Belize Purple is pure breeding, both sexes show the unusual red coloration, but it is more intense in the males. According to our breeder, the colours of older fish become even more intense!
For our customers: the animals have code 476568 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesalers.
Once again we can offer a extremely beautiful wild strain of the variatus platy in good numbers as German offspring. The ancestors of these animals were collected in 2002 in Puente Escalanar, Veracruz, Mexico by private hobbyists and brought along. Since then, the animals have enthused mainly the community of friends of livebearers; to our knowledge, they have not yet appeared in regular trade.
A special characteristic of these animals is the sickle-shaped tail-root-spot, which all specimens, males and females, show. Males have two basic coloration types. First specimens with tiger stripes on the flanks of the front body and second such, which are dotted here. Dominant specimens of the tigred variety become quince-yellow, with the dotted is much blue shimmer in the front body. Particularly beautiful are the sky-blue scales, which some males of the tigered form show along the mid of the front body.
They are lively, very healthy animals, whose behaviour has remained very original. When they are worried, they join together to form the swarm, which is very rarely observed among the domesticated tribes that have been around for a hundred years.
For our customers: the animals have code 443000 (sm-md) and 443002 (md-lg) on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Only very rarely one of the most beautiful breeding forms of the swordtail comes to us: the black Simpson with orange fins. Among fish lovers Bayreuth is known as the spade for this very distinctive swordtail breeding form and is called “Bayreuth Cross”. In Germany, this variant was first exhibited in 1968 (report by the Nordbayer Kurier on 11 October 1968). As with other swordtails – Hamburg, Wiesbaden, Berlin – the name of the city was adopted for this helleri and thus it became the Bayreuth swordtail.
However, this was not the first time that a swordtail of the “Bayreuth type” was bred. In fact, five years earlier, Hawaiian fish breeders Eric and Larry Nishida crossed a red Simpson fin male with a normal fin Hamburg female. Hamburgers are black swordtails whose scales have a green or blue sheen. The result of this crossing had the high Simpson fin, the body coloration of the hamburger, a well developed sword, a bright red throat region and red fins. An article about this “Nishida Highfin-helleri” appeared in the American magazine “The Aquarium” in November 1963.
Our fish are offspring from Vietnam.
For our customers: the animals have code 420972 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Red-white, koicoloured livebeares are very hip currently. Usually the commercial breeders do not name their creations by their genetic compostion – like private hobbyists do -, but name them instead with as fancy names as possible. The „Kohaku“ is a white albino swordtail with a bright red patch on the front part of the body. This sport is known for some time already with black eyes. This was named „Marlboro“ and the selection with the red patch on the front part of the body „Tanchu“. No doubt: the albino selection called „Kohaku“ is a real eyecatcher!
For our customers: the fish have code 421273 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply e wholesale trade.
White-red sports in Xiphophorus are pretty demanding for the breeder. Interestingly these fish are all usually born in a crystal red coloration. Only after a few weeks the red breaks up and white patches become visible. Some of the fish become totally white when fully grown, others totally red, but most of them show red patches on a white background. But every spawn is something like a surprise package for the breeder. So breeders who want a uniform look of their fish wil not become happy with white-red Xiphos. But all others enjoy the variations in that sport.
We now obtained for the first time a white-red sport of coral platy from a German breeder. Coral platys differ from their normal cousins by the stout figure. The Platy Coral Kohaku is as variable as one is used to in the white-red sports of Xiphos.
For our customers: the fish have code 442582 on our stocklist. Please noite that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Lyretail swordtails are a sport of Xiphophorus hellerii and rather difficult to breed. Usually only the females can be used for breeding. They need „normal“ males for mating, because in most Lyretail males the fin that is used for insemination in livebearers, the so called gonopodium, is much prolonged and useless. Among ornamental fish breeders the word of „playing Mikado with cooked spaghetti“ is well known… If one uses „normal“ males for breeding Lyretails only a part of the offspring has the Lyretail phenotype. This is the reason why Lyretails are usually more expensive than other sports of the swordtail.
But very rarely Lyretail male swordtails appear that have polonged fins, but a normal gonopdium. These are called „King Lyretail Swordtails“. Dieter Bork has bred King Lyretails for us that are already offspring from King Lyretail fathers. The latter have been selected by us from imported Lyretails. Most of the fish belong to the sport „guentheri red“, but some other sports are also among our fish. The King Lyra females usually develop a small sword when fully grown.
The King Lyra swordtails we currently have in stock are most probably the very first ones that appeared in the ornamental wholesale trade at all, they are a real top-rarity!
For our customers: the fish have code 420823 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusvely supply the wholesale trade. Available in limited numbes only!
What is a Broccoli swordtail? A green swordtail that smells like cabbage? No, not at all! If one crosses a simpson swordtail – simpsons are the swordtails with the long dorsal fin – with a lyretail swordtail – lyretails have prolongations in all fins – some of the offspring have a very long simpson dorsal fin. In these fish single rays of the dorsal fin are longer than the remaining ones. This was felt not to be attractive for a long time and the cross was also excluded from competitions. But in Asia people saw the things different. They continued developing the cross and finally the result was a fish in which the extraordinary large simpson dorsal had wavy structures along the edge. The breeders named the new sport „broccoli“. We now have received for the vey first time some of these swordtails, bred on red albinos. The red albino sport in X. hellerii is called the „Vienna cross“.
For our customers: the fish have code 420964 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Once more we can offer a very beautiful wild sport of the variable platy: La Laguna! Our specimens are German bred. This sport originates from San Luis Potosi in Mexico; La Laguna de la Media Luna is a very popular place for tourism.
The peculiar difference of the population La Laguna to other sports of the variable platy are the dark seams of the caudal and the dorsal fin in males in full coloration, the so-called alpha-males. Not all males always show the colours in full intensity; it is recommend to keep several males together. Competition stimulates the development of colors!
For our customers: the fish have code 442981 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Once more we can present to you an interesting and beautiful wild variety of a livebearer: Xiphophorus hellerii „guentheri Golden Stream“, This unusual Green Swordtail originates from the surroundings of the Golden Stream preserve in Belize, Mexico. This presevere covers an area of about 61 km2 and contains a large number of rare and endangered species. Our specimens of Xiphophorus hellerii „guentheri Golden Stream“ are bred ones from Southeast Asia.
In Germany usually spotted swordtails are called „guentheri“. The subspecies Xiphophorus hellerii guentheri has been described from Guatemala. The „Golden Stream“ does not fit to what we think is a guentheri, but the name has been accepted widely in the community of liveberaer enthusiasts so we feel that the name should not be changed without eager need. It is by far more important that such animals are bred in pure strains. Only under these conditions it will be possible in the future to study behaviour and genetics of wild fish. There do exist already enough artifical sports and crosses.
One of the pecularities of the „Golden Stream“ is that there still exists a natural polymorphism in males. One can obain from the same brood small, tiny, often very colourful males and real bulls that have about the double body mass compared with their small conspecifics. These so called early and late males appear initially in any population of swordtail, but in the domesticated strains the breeders often eliminate the small early males and so only large, late males exist.
The males of the „Golden Steam“ often exhibit dark vertical stripes on the shoulder. All in all the „Golden Stream“ is a wonderful wild type of swordtail that can be recommended warmly to all hobbyists interested in studies of behaviour and genetics; but a hobbyist that simply enjoys beautiful fish will also make a good choice in buying Xiphophorus hellerii „guentheri Golden Stream“.
For our customers: the fish have code 421268 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & Photos: Frank Schäfer
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