The Doctor Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 What livebearer is producing the most fry on regular basis? Thanks a lot and Happy New Year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 3 minutes ago, SirLJ said: What livebearer is producing the most fry on regular basis? Thanks a lot and Happy New Year! Probably swordtails, they drop huge amounts of fry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Burke Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 12 minutes ago, SirLJ said: What livebearer is producing the most fry on regular basis? Thanks a lot and Happy New Year! What an interesting question. Why did you ask? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Here is a file I just uploaded on commercially producing swordtails. 14 minutes ago, Ken Burke said: What an interesting question. Why did you ask? The OP hasn't responded yet on why, but my guess is that it could be for live food production. Let see what he says. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Burke Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Neat document! I wonder how much transfers over to plattys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Just now, Ken Burke said: Neat document! I wonder how much transfers over to platys? My guess is a whole bunch transfers over to platys as platys and swordtails are super closely related species that only recently began to separate into distinct species. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Apparently swordtails are just platys that were sexually selected by female platys to have big swords. Here is the Maury Povich version: 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Burke Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 That’s what I thought. No wonder my summer tub did so well 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 5 hours ago, Ken Burke said: What an interesting question. Why did you ask? Hi Ken, I am back in the hobby and I am experimenting with lazy / low maintenance tank setup, so I thought one male and few females could be a constant source of live food... like PEZ dispensers, if you'd like 🙂 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 8 hours ago, Daniel said: Here is a file I just uploaded on commercially producing swordtails. The OP hasn't responded yet on why, but my guess is that it could be for live food production. Let see what he says. Great minds think alike 🙂 Thanks a lot for the great document! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Just be advised that with swordtails, some of the presumed female swordtails can turn into a male. I have a large breeding colony of neon swords and have smaller colonies of selected swordtails in other tanks in case my big colony collapses. In one of those tanks I had a lone male, so I selected a large female from the big colony for him. He did the spawning routine with her, and I was waiting for fry. I'll be waiting a long, long time as "she's" now developed a gonopodium and is starting to develop a swordtail. "She" was about twice the size of the male and slightly older than him, but either changed sex or was a very slow developing male. I had the misfortune to spend fifteen days in the hospital a few years ago and a tank with eleven swordtails had no food and their light was on 24/7 for those fifteen days. When I went into the hospital I had three males. When I came out there were nine males. It appears that when stressed female swordtails decide to become male swordtails. Male swordtails sell better than females, so there's probably a way to stress them enough to get more males, but I've never heard of anyone doing it commercially. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 I have done research on this , it is not that the females become males, but some males develop later in life to avoid being dominated by another dominant male... but a great reminder, to watch what are you buying 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Reportedly, all young swordtails have both sexual organs/gonads and then absorb one or the other becoming either male or female. Some late blooming males have reportedly had one or more spawns delivering fry before absorbing the female gonads and becoming male. Males can't become female once they've made the switch, but a supposed female, even one that's given birth, can become male. It's an interesting phenomena. Based on my very limited experience (I don't generally try to stress my fish) I suspect stress (24 hour a day lighting and no food for two weeks) can provoke the change. With fully developed male swordtails having more market value, it could be an interesting experiment for a fish farm or research facility to conduct to see if they could stress supposed female swordtails into becoming male or prompt late developing males into developing sooner. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 12 hours ago, The Doctor said: I have done research on this , it is not that the females become males, but some males develop later in life to avoid being dominated by another dominant male... but a great reminder, to watch what are you buying 🙂 Swordtail guru Ted Coletti had a very interesting interview with @Randy that included this very issue on a recent Aquarist Podcast. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Burke Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 The article @Danielshared states that these fish are polygenic. So, three combinations are female, two are male! How cool is that 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 3 hours ago, Ken Burke said: So, three combinations are female, two are male! How cool is that That blew my mind when I first learned that about platys. You could potentially get a pair (xx and yy) that only produce male babies. How weird is that?? I hear that the ww females don’t exist in nature though, so unfortunately no only-female-producing pairs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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