SwordTail Gambusia Hybrids

[MTRX]

HI, I have SwordTail Gambusia Hybrids. I grew them in a 10Gallon mud tank I created to grow plants and such. The Gambusias are tiny and silver, and I had gathered them wild from a creek. Several males and females were added to the tank first. Later I put in 2 male swordtails: one orange, and one was grey. No female swordtails were added to the tank ever. After a while I noticed about 6 baby gambusias(all grey) swimming around. When I came back later, I noticed another 6 babies. These were orange. The traits the orange babies exhibit are weird. Well weird as far as swordtails go. They are all larger than both the gambusias, and their orange father. A lot larger. The females are Orange with a dirty grey about them. The fins appear to be in the right spot for a wordtail, and they aquired the blueish black dot that female gambusias carry at tail end of their abdomen. very interesting. The males are large for male swordtails, and interestingly enough carry the lateral stripes that female swordtails are more well known for. They are developing their swords. While both specimens carry a slight grey color mixed in with their orange they also carry grey/silver splotches here and there, and their scales are more defined as in etched out in a darker grey outline, much like their mother who is silver with scales etched out, and outlined in black. One of the funnier traits the orange swordtails carry from the Gambusias is their mouths. While both species have tiny upwards pointed mouths. the hybrids mouths are smaller than a typical swords, and point upwards much more than a normal swordtail. They are very friendly, but don't seem interested in normal male swordtails, and they are snail nippers. Only one male completely resembles his father.

I thought I'd share this with everyone since their is a myth that xiphophorus and other poeciliidae can't mix. This is entirely untrue. It is uncommon rare, and not likely to happen, but it is not genetically impossible. I noticed that paul lamb somewhere in this forum has also had success with the hybrids. You'll find a lot of other forums will people will say it's arbitrarily impossible, but here at fishforums we know better. Thanks paul for sharing, I got tired of trying to explain this possibility to others.

IMG_0141.jpg is a male in my 30Gallon long.
IMG_0135.jpg is a female in my 30Gallon long.
IMG_0114.jpg is centered on the female in my 10Gallon Mud Tank.
IMG_0113.jpg is centered on the only male who resembles his father.

[MTRX]

looks like my attachments aren't showing up.

[emc7]

Best to upload to a 3rd party image site and use the image tag to link them in.

[Big Business]

Very cool, MTRX. How old are the hybrid offspring? I am curious to see if the hybrids will be fertile.


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[MTRX]

alright i'll add some photos to photobucket. i was wondering about the fertility myself, but they just spawned about 6 more babys in the same tank with only the hybrids and gambusias present in the tank. i just through a molly boy in there cuz i'm getting really curious, i wanna see if the molly with either the gambusias or swordtails, he's the only male molly in there, and boy has he been trying!! lol. let me get those photos up and i'll post them as soon as i can.

[MTRX]

the offspring are about 6 months maybe, i didn't catch the day the were born, but they're adults now. I took half of them and put them in my livebearer community, and they are doing really well.

[Big Business]

I look forward to seeing some current pictures.


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[TheOldSalt]

I was going to mention Paul Lamb's experiments, but you beat me to it. Yes, a lot of people don't yet quite get it, but maybe, thanks to the efforts of guys like you and Paul, the truth will become better known.
Heck, so far most folks seem to have a hard time with the fact that guppies can change gender. Someday, maybe...

[MTRX]

alright i got some pics of the specimens i been promising.

http://www.imagebam.com/image/944194233002973

http://www.imagebam.com/image/aac0bc233002954

http://www.imagebam.com/image/80d5d2233002980

http://www.imagebam.com/image/98f9d0233002990

like i said the only there was only one baby that resembles the father. it's the male in these pics. i'll upload

[MTRX]

some better ones in a bit. they're full grown now since these pics and look amazing. the females got the grey abdomen spot from the gambusia females, and the males are huge!!!! much larger than their father by 4x, or so, and even bigger than my tuxedo swordtail who was the largest i'd ever seen as far as swordtails go. O_O
oh and now they males are mature they became somewhat aggressive to other male non hybrids fighting for that alpha fish spot. they're owning my 30GALLON long tank, but they don't fight with females or other species.
O_O
.

[MTRX]

oh and can someone help me figure out what this is?? http://www.fishforums.com/forum/gene....html?posted=1

i discovered it growing in one of my 10GALLON tanks. O_O

[MTRX]

dude. Theoldsalt. I've heard the same thing about swordtails. i wonder if it's true for the swordtails. i had a gray swordtail that i always thought was a female, but after a few months it grew a sword. i had one of the hybrids i thought was female grow a sword. but for the silver swordtail that grew a sword i just figured it was imature. if swordtails could infact change genders, what if i thought was the father wasn't the father, but instead the mother?? OMG it's jerry springer in my fishtank.

[TheOldSalt]

Swordtails are champions at sexchanging. They have 3 sex chromosomes W, X & Y instead of the usual 2. It's complicated, but this allows them to switch with ease. Any really huge male sword you see was very likely once a female.