You want chaos - don't do this.

Discussion in 'Livebearers' started by Cheetah, Aug 11, 2010.

  1. Cheetah

    Cheetah Retired moderator

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    Somehow, my red platies and my red swords got mixed up in one pond.... (I think it might be from transferring floating plants).... This is a nightmare sorting out which is which..... It'll take a year of Sundays before I can successfully separate them again....
    I've previously mixed guppies & mollies, or Platies & mollies, with no problem, but Swords & platies are not on.
     
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  3. Relborg

    Relborg

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    keep them together call them "Swaties"
     
  4. SalmonAfrica

    SalmonAfrica Batfish

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    Just don't sell them/give them away. All the hybrids already on the market cause enough trouble as it is.

    Keep them, grow them up, but keep them seperate.
     
  5. Bufamotis

    Bufamotis

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    swaties or plords, lol, i didn't know the two would cause a hybrid?
     
  6. Pistolshrimp

    Pistolshrimp

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    Lol ive seen platies with sword tails, look cool actually
     
  7. Asgar

    Asgar

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    You just found your answer to the Live Food problem
     
  8. kratzfa

    kratzfa

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    All commercial sword and platties are hybrids. In the wild you do not get red forms, only some platties with red spots. When these were crossed with swords the youngsters were red. I made a study of the genetics years ago and have a booklet by one of Dr Herbert Axelrod of the New York Aquariums' colleagues on sword/platty genetics. The wild platty has a gene inhibiting the red factor, which fell away when it was crossed with the green sword. I used to have some platties, which must have been near to pure, because they were not even interested when I put swords in with them and did not hybridise. Interesting enough they were about half the size of platties normally seen and the males were incredibly active, always chasing the females. They also ate very few of their fry. Unfortunately I let that small platty strain die out, as I have not seen it again in the last 20years. I finally put a young male in with some sword females and the hybrids were very interesting. They had the general platty body, but were twice the size of normal platties, but all males had short swords. I do not what the F2 generation would have looked like, as I got rid of them.
     

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