Even in wild living swordtails one can observe the tendency in females to mate only with the most impressive males. And so in swordtails the swordfin developed. This fin is obviously a pure luxury without any practical use, comparable best with the train in male peacocks. The only use of this is to impress the females.
Under human care even luxury genes can become established which are already inherent genetically in wild fish, but which cannot become established in the wild for several reasons. One of these genes is the lyra factor in swordtails. This gene leads to a prolongation of all fins (except the ventral fins) in both sexes – also in females! These females find lyra males very sexy, but their desire cannot be fulfilled by lyra males. For the copulation organ of male swordtails (the gonopodium) is also a modified fin (the anal fin) and thus much too long for use. You know the saying “have you ever tried to play mikado with cooked spaghetti”?
So one must use normal finned swordtail males for breeding. The offspring of the cross normal finned and lyra contains only in part lyra finned specimens. This makes breeding lyra finned swordtail quite elaborate.
We just received a shipment of wonderful, large lyra finned swordtails of the Vienna sport. Vienna swordtails are plain red albinos with red eyes. This sport is very rare and we can offer only a limited number of them.
For our customers: the fish have code 420954 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
| Angaben zum Tier | |
|---|---|
| Herkunft | Nachzucht / bred |
| Verfügbare Größe in cm | 10-12 |
