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This attractive little swordtail is found in the Rio Huichihuayan in Mexico and comes in two colour forms - yellow (popularily named "gold") and blue. They only reach 3.5 to 4cms in length. It is the male in fact that has the "golden" colour and is quite a slim little fish. The female is browner and a more rounded fish. .  When I first got this fish,quite a few years ago, I bought a pair at auction and for the next 18 mths they produced no fry. A friend fancied them so not having produced the goods, I sold them on. Later I read about the problems that can occur by just having a single pair. I then managed to buy 2 pairs in a short space of time, at two different auctions and put them in a fairly well planted 24" tank. Temperature around 73F. I fed them some Spirulina flake, bits of chopped up frozen blood worm and daphnia from my garden pond. (An excellent supply as I don't keep any fish in it)  A month or so later and I noticed that one fairly gravid female seemed to be wanting a quiet life under the bogwood.(Understandable as the males are pretty attentive and very quick!) Two days later and I spotted a fry;- after watching for a while I counted a total of 8 fry. I left them in the tank with the parents as they seemed to be surviving using the plant cover. I fed them some Tetra min and microworm, although they find plenty of natural micro-organisms in the vegetation as well as the tiny flake particles drifting about from the adults feeding. The adults do dart towards them but I still had 8 fry one week later! After the first week in fact the fry were ignored. At 3 weeks old the eight fry were almost 1 cm in length and the lateral line could clearly be seen.  By now the other female had dropped fry,but I could only spot 4 new small fry. All 12 fish grew steadily but quite slowly and in the meantime I had sold both adult pairs. All the fry were duly grown on and the females gave birth to their first lot of fry at just over 9 months old. The sex ratio worked out well so I could sell all the juveniles as pairs or trios. Anyone thinking of breeding these attractive little fish, there is never a problem moving them on to fish friends, aquarist centres or selling them on at auctions. (Text and photos; Ivor Hilton) |
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