They are stunners for sure. I had them a couple of years ago and look forward to keeping them again in the future.

Here's a few of mine...

Adults just starting to color up:




The lighting in this tank can throw a yellow cast in pictures, so pardon the exaggerated colors:




Fry:

This baby has been put to bed. It should arrive in your mailbox soon!

No I really need to sleep more and volunteer less, but I corrected the year in case anyone didn't figure it out. Thanks for the pictures!

Thank you sir!

We could use more fish pictures from the convention, but we're wrapping it up so we'll need them ASAP, if we could please. You can send them to melodym{at}allnaturalpetcare.com. Please include how you would like to be credited (name).

Many t(h)anks!

LOL Well Aqualog All Livebearers and Halfbeaks is a fine start - it shows both domestics and wild-types. Anything by Dr. Joanne Norton is an excellent resource for Swordtail genetics.

The color chart is virtually limitless. Finnage hasn't changed much - hifin, hifin lyretail, lyretail, and longfin are the basic Swordtail finnage types. Platy's can also sport a Plumetail.

I agree with you - mutts are fun, and figuring out the genetics behind it is fascinating.

Thanks very much for the additional information. It sounds like everything is coming together nicely!

Is there a specific strain that you're referring to? Your questions certainly are not dumb, but they are general enough to have the answers fill a book...LOL.

Generally speaking, an initial mutation like lyretail or albino shows up out of the blue in someone's tank. They're then selectively bred for that trait. Some are also brought into another domestic strain, as with red Platy's being crossed with Swordtails to produce a red Swordtail.

It's impossible to say how many mutations occur in the wild, as many are gobbled up. Theoretically, they can occur more often in captivity due to the smaller breeding pool, which allows for recessives to sneak into the population. That's a tad over-simplified though.

There can be highly variable outcomes when crossing domestics. While some strains may breed true, it depends on what you're dealing with.