In common with most domesticated livebearers, the Swordtail’s color and pattern are very different from those of the wild type. Many of these fish have a hybrid ancestry, thanks to earlier crossings both with other types of swordtail and also with platies.
The attractive patterning of these headstanders (so-called because they often rest with the head pointing downward) consists of alternating stripes of black and yellow.
Introduction to Freshwater Fish Maintenance Feeding the fish Feeding time offers the best opportunity to see your fish at close quarters and monitor their well-being. It is also an opportunity to tame your fish, especially if you feed them at the same times each day. Freshwater fish can be given a wide range of foods, […]
Feeding time offers the best opportunity to see your fish at close quarters and monitor their well-being. It is also an opportunity to tame your fish, especially if you feed them at the same times each day. Freshwater fish can be given a wide range of foods, but commercial products are the most convenient and also the safest option, since diseases may be introduced to the tank along with invertebrate live foods, such as tubifex worms.
Platies and swordtails are almost as fecund as guppies. As in the guppy, a female can produce several broods from a single impregnation, and again, like the guppy, they have been manipulated by commercial breeders to produce variations in colour and finnage.
Some of you may be tempted to keep Cyprinus carpio (Koi Carp) in an aquarium and we would like to advise against this. Koi are potentially large fishes best housed in large purpose-built ponds with powerful filtration systems.
