Montezumae swordtail fry!

[Tripping Willow 91]

The end of last year I set up a little 60l tank to breed my little group of monties, I wanted to increase my group size to around a dozen. I had 5f and 1m, I managed to get 4f (the smallest female was too cunning for me ) and the male netted out of the main tank and into the breeder.

One month later they have graced me with 20 or so fry and some very gravid looking females that'll soon be increasing that number.

Here's my latest additions along with the parents

 

[FJB]

Nice! Those adults are just gorgeous. I have not had montezumas for many years, and I don't see good quality fish often. Congrats and Good luck raising lots of fry!

 

[Tripping Willow 91]

Nice! Those adults are just gorgeous. I have not had montezumas for many years, and I don't see good quality fish often. Congrats and Good luck raising lots of fry!

Thanks. I'm in the UK and you don't see them often over here, a keen hobbyist breeder got hold of them for me. I'm very impressed with them, the male seems to look better everyday

 

[Hybridfish7]

Congratulations, I'm thinking of getting some myself in the near future. I currently just have birchmanni, in terms of that branch of swordtails.

 

[FINWIN]

Wow, cool looking! Never saw those before.

 

[Kevin@TUIC]

very nice! super rare to see X. montezumae. Almost all in the hobby are just X. helleri and are marketed by some of the Fl farms as green montezuma.
Monte's have very small spawns and are a cool water fish so most that ever were over here in the us market died off and have vanished years ago. nice to see these.

 

[jjohnwm]

These are lovely; I like Swordtails in general, and currently have a nice breeding colony of ordinary green helleri. I've only seen one other species (not montezumae) ever in person, and the small group was already spoken for and unavailable...otherwise I would have snapped them up on the spot.

Thanks to Kevin@TUIC for that info in the above post. It makes those fish even more attractive to me than before. Our local aquarium club is resuming regular meetings next month, first time since Covid. They are one of my main sources of oddballs like this; fingers crossed...

 

[Tripping Willow 91]

Congratulations, I'm thinking of getting some myself in the near future. I currently just have birchmanni, in terms of that branch of swordtails.

They're nice little xiphophorus, if you acquire some monties you could have swords with tiny swords and swords with the largest swords

 

[Tripping Willow 91]

very nice! super rare to see X. montezumae. Almost all in the hobby are just X. helleri and are marketed by some of the Fl farms as green montezuma.
Monte's have very small spawns and are a cool water fish so most that ever were over here in the us market died off and have vanished years ago. nice to see these.

They're great fish, the blue sheen and markings on my male are stunning! Didn't realise they are so rare in the US. I've never seen any others in person but they do come up for sale over here now and again, not something you'd find in the lfs though

 

[Tripping Willow 91]

These are lovely; I like Swordtails in general, and currently have a nice breeding colony of ordinary green helleri. I've only seen one other species (not montezumae) ever in person, and the small group was already spoken for and unavailable...otherwise I would have snapped them up on the spot.

Thanks to Kevin@TUIC for that info in the above post. It makes those fish even more attractive to me than before. Our local aquarium club is resuming regular meetings next month, first time since Covid. They are one of my main sources of oddballs like this; fingers crossed...

I have 4 big female green helleri in my meeki tank, I did have a male but he died a while back. The greens are nice but I wanted something a bit more special, I got in touch with a hobbyist and was amazed when 2 weeks later he had acquired this small group of monties for me. My greens will soon be rehomed and replaced with a dozen of these