Description
This species of swordtail is one of the most common in the hobby, and one of the most heavily selectively bred for different colors and fin types. This Central American livebearer is native to Mexico, Guatemala, southern Belize, and northwestern Honduras, but it has been introduced to many other river systems, and is now found in the wild in every continent except for Antarctica! This fish is known as the swordtail because the males have an extended ray on the bottom of their tail, which looks like a sword. This strain originates from a white bodied fish, which you can see by their blue eyes, and have had red bred back into their body, which makes for a powdery dusted fish. A pastel blue iridescence runs throughout their flanks, and there are two black bars on the top and bottom of their tails, which look like streaks from a comet, and thus it is apparent where the strain name comes from.
This species is a livebearer, which means that the females will gestate and give birth to live young, which you can leave with the parents or remove, the latter typically resulting in much higher yield rates of babies. They do not care much about the water parameters, able to survive and reproduce in water that acidic or alkaline, soft or hard, with little effect on their fecundity. The most important factor when keeping this fish is that they need a good filter and good flow, as they are good swimmers and quite capable of swimming against a current. These fish also get decently large, with males reaching around 3 inches and females averaging about 5 inches when fully mature. This means that you should make sure you have an aquarium that is large enough to give them swimming space as well, and decorate fairly sparsely, as these fish are not shy and do not seem to care too much about hiding places. During spawning these fish can get a bit nippy, but they are an altogether peaceful species.
This is a good choice as an addition to most community tanks, as long as you keep things of a similar size and temperament, as well as tankmates which are able to swim in a moderate amount of flow. Also remember that as with most livebearers, you may want to keep two females per male to reduce aggression, especially during breeding. All in all, an awesome addition to your slightly larger tank. These fish ship individually bagged.
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