Controlled Breeding
It is essential for the serious aquarists to keep different varieties in
separate tanks, since the majority colour varieties of the Swordtail,
Guppy and the common Platy freely mate with other colours of their kind.
Young Platies delivered by a female that has been in a community tank
with color varieties other than her own will be accumulation of colours
representing different feathers. None are expected to be especially
attractive. The result of a haphazard
breeding is, as it is with dogs, more likely to be unpredictable and
unwanted than otherwise.
If you purchase breeding stock, fish should be selected from aquaria
where only one variety of species desire is housed. Sexes should be
separated as soon as possible. All baby livebearers look like females
when born. Daily close inspection of each individual anal fin will soon
reveal that in some fish it is beginning to thicken at its leading edge
a fold backward. When these developing males are spotted they must be
removed to continue their growth separate from the females. The
development of gonopodium begins long before any other indications of
the sex of male are in evidence, for example, colour in the guppy or the
sword in the Swordtail. Once the fishes became adults, each must be
carefully examined and those with the very best colour and desired
markings must be selected as parents of the next generation. It is
essential that selection must be thorough.
Theirs is no danger in deteriorating a strain of fish by repeated
sister-brother or the same mating generation after generation if great
care is taken to select only the very best of each generation as parents
for the next generation. In-breeding in itself is not harmful to a
species unless brother-sister mating are made but with one or both
parents randomly chosen. Some individual males develop later than others
of the same offspring. They continue growing; looking like females until
finally they begin to develop their secondary sex characteristics.
Hybrids
If the female is virgin and no male of her species is available,
Swordtails and Platies which are of the same genus Xiphophorus will
hybridise. Many of the various colour varieties of Swordtails and Platies
are the result of careful selective breeding from such crosses. Guppies
and Mollies will occasionally hybridise in the same fashion though they
produce sterile offspring.
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