Hi,
I am just wondering if anyonw know where to get super sailfin red-eyed swordtails. Thanks

Zaw

There are some hifins here but I would not call them sailfins even though the dorsal is really tall. They are expensive here but true breeding as far as I know. I think in swordtails the term sail fin has replaced the hifin like what was developed by the simpson swordtail. If anyone else knows please inform me.
Later
gerard94114@yahoo.com

As for today's Swordtail, "Sailfin" was used to describe the super wide dorsaled Hifin Swordtails which appeared from Asia several years ago. Like everything else, this has gotten messed up and people are now calling even poor dorsaled Hifins "Sailfin".

Try www.rarelivebearers.com or www.platy-plus.com

Darrell

Thanks Darrell. I will check them out...

Zaw

Yes, in my opinion "Super Sailfin" should only be used if the strain sports a extremely wide sail-like dorsal and strains with average dorsal should be called merely "Hifin", but I see this all of the time on Aquabid. Fish with poor or average hifins labeled as "Sailfin"

I'm also still seeing people sell common finned Swordtails as "Carrying Hifin" for the 1000th time "Hifin can't be carried on common finned fish!!!" The purchaser better hope that the females got bred by Hifin males because they're not going to "throw Hifin".

Darrell

Ageed. I have seen the sellers who state that their regular fin female and males come from parents with the sailfin, hifin or lyretail gene. These fish will never spawn that trait unless a female is hit by a male with these traits. Very misleading and I would not ever buy from these sellers.

I don't know if these people who sell the fish as "Carrying the Hifin gene" are trying to pull "A big one" or just don't know any better.

If it's the latter, that's a shame because the information for dominant and recessive traits has been out there for hobbyist for years (Dr. Joanne Norton always hit on it.)

What bothers me i, I saw bags of common finned fish being auctioned at one of the ALA conventions labeled "Carrying the gene for Hifin" and no one corrected this!

Please if anyone on here thinks that the Hifin trait can be carried like a recessive trait, it can't!!!

Darrell

Surely ignorance does play a part with many sellers. I say that because even if the hifin gene wasn't always expressed, there's no way to tell if a fish is actually carrying an unexpressed recessive gene unless it's tested in a lab. Like in the case of double-recessives, not all offspring would inherit it so without expression, there's no way to tell if it's there or not... to my knowledge anyway. Therefore, whether it's a gene that's always expressed like the hifin or a double-recessive like an albino, no seller can honestly state that the fish carries an unexpressed gene. They can talk about the parentage and say the fish MAY carry the gene, but that's about it.

If the seller knew about it, they'd be awfully bold to state it publicly and hope nobody knows any better. Maybe we should be taking this as an opportunity to educate people in a nonjudgmental, friendly manner. Then invite them to the ALA to learn more.

Melody,

True, but if it's a recessive trait like Albino there's a good chance that if you receive a group of non-Albinos from an Albino cross some Albinos will be produced. With non-Hifins from Hifin stock there's pretty much 0% chance that Hifins will be produced. That's talking non-scientific!

Darrell

Right, but they still shouldn't state that the fish carry the albino gene, they should say they MAY carry the gene or the fry MAY produce albinos, and state why, like the father is an albino. 

That's where the practice probably originated.  People who don't know any better assumed that hifin or longfin genes would be like albino genes (which they may be familiar with from Guppies), in that two unexpressed recessives could produce the morph. 

Then there are hybrids that don't seem to follow the usual fish genetic rules at all, like some fancy Bristlenose Pleco's.  I see similar statements in BN auctions quite often, especially "carries the longfin gene".  No wonder people are confused. 

That's why I think ignorance plays a big part and we could nicely provide accurate information.  By bringing them back here, they can verify what they're being told.