I feed mine several times a day most days brine shrimp, spirulina, Krill powder. and flakes. Frequente feedings require frequent water changes for bett growth. I do about a gallon water change daily tap water with no chemical to remove chlorine or anything. The fish can handle small amounts with no problem.
gerard

I got several of the females from copper. Beautiful fish. Never been with any males I have. As he told me they do not produce true. yet. I have gotten several drops of fry and in my tanks they are really growing fast. Actually the fastest growing swordtails I have ever had.
Because of the color markings it is almost impossable to tell when they are pregnant. I am just letting them drop til they cant drop anymore. Then I will look to add the male of choice. They are as beautiful in real life as the photo. Anyone interested I would definitly say get some of coppers fish.
gerard

well i there giving boiled sphinat or other vegetables, flakes, beffheart (brood grow really fast on this one) and lately tested discus mix (beefheart shrimp sea fish vitamins flakes carrot and some other stuff)and mabe it was fatal mistake for me to loose those giants and last of white X Helleri.

p.s. what sword tail you there talking about? Coul'd you post image of it?

They are same as posted by copper blue colored black berlin. I got mine from him
gerard

awsome and what male u give to lyra tails X Helleri? I mean simple or long fin?

The Berlin Blacks I got from Copper have neever been with any male since I have had them. Every fry born has been hi fin. I have about 30 of different colors. They are growing fast. I am suprised because I heard they were slow to grow and mature. These are certainly growing fast. It must be something I am doing. I treat them just like my mollies.
gerard94114@yahoo.com

ive been trying to cross swordtail with a platy. ive read "they freely interbreed" lol. well i have 20 gal tanks..i tried male sword to female platy..the only fish in the tank! nothing!!!!! didnt even acknowledge one another...tried male platy to female sword...NOTHING!!!same thing.. what is going on? anyone have any suggestions on what setup i shud use if uve had luck?? (male platy to female sword or male sword to female platy)thanks

Hi James
Just catching up on this forum....I have had good crosses using 5 gal tanks. With the 20, there may be enough room for them to mind their own business, though most male swords/platies try to mate with any fish that resembles a female after a bit.

One tip I would suggest, use a male with a dominant trait the female doesn't have, or males she has been with had. Any fry with the dominant phenotype must be hybrids. Using markers greatly helps identify hybrids. Unfortunately, some times the traits we want to wrk with are recessive and this is no help.

Jim

Even though Fancy (I use Fancy, not Domestic to refer to Aquarium Swordtails & Platies of mixed background I don't put Xiphophorus in front of a Fancy strains and I don't like the use of "Aquarium Hybrids" when referring to an established strains), Swordtails almost always have some Platy in their background, they carry more genes and traits of the Swordtail. It is unlikely that a Platy trait will dominate over Swordtail in a Fancy Swordtail.
Usually you'll see offspring from the new mating within the second or third brood mixed with fry from the previous mating/s


Darrell E. Mfford

James,

Usually the people who talk about how easy something is to do, have never done it!

Platy/ Swordtail crosses aren't easy to obtain and if you are fortunate enough to achieve F1, you sometimes hit a WALL in F2.

Darrell E. Mefford (Former Fancy Xiphophorus Specialist)