The Secrets of Raising Show Quality Black Swordtails
by Charles Drew
First published in the newsletter of the Hamilton and District Aquarium Society, December
2002
Aquarticles
I learned the way to produce high quality black swords from a woman who was breeding
them over thirty years ago. In the early 1970's I remember her sending a box of Black Hi
Fin Lyretail Swords to the USA and receiving $15.00 a pair for them. That was in the days
when the Canadian and USA dollar were never more than 10 cents apart and you could still
buy a new Cadillac for about five thousand dollars. That shows you that good quality fish
were worth a lot of money even then.
The first thing that you need to know is that the black pigment of the black sword is
cancerous. Most black swordtails that you find in pet shops are rather drab. The fins
range from clear fins to fins with a lot of black. If the fish develops solid black in the
fins the cancer develops into a tumor the fish dies. The way to avoid this problem is to
keep the fins clear or coloured. Start with the best black female sword that you can find
with clear fins. Now find a male of any variety just so long as his fins are a solid red
or a deep orange. I myself have used velvet red males and neon swords. The fry from this
mating will give you a mixture with about half of them black. (I have never seen any black
sword female throw all black fry.) The non-black fry will be the colour of the father or
green from the mother's background. From the black fry you should have a good percentage
with red or orange fins. This is a much more attractive fish than one with clear fins.
This colour combination is known as the Berlin Sword. (Probably first developed in
Germany). From the best of these fry you should be able to develop an excellent common fin
strain of good black swords. If further improvement is desired you can breed back to a
velvet red male again or breed a red female from a black mother to a red finned black male
for good results.
To develop what I call the ultimate of black swordtails the Black Hi Fin Lyretail, a
few generations of breeding will be required unless you can get your hands on a black male
hi fin. Starting with nothing, find a good hi fin sword strain; any colour will do except
a wagtail strain because you cannot have black fins. Take this hi fin male (hopefully red
or orange) and breed him to a lyretail female. If you were fortunate enough to find a
black female lyretail then you just found the shortcut. If not you will have to develop
your own first. Take a male black sword and preferably an orange or neon lyretail female
and breed them together. The results should be a percentage of black lyretails. Black
lyretail females from this breeding are now bred to a hi fin male sword. The offspring
should show all the characteristics of both parents. Black fry and fry of at least one
other colour. They will vary from common finnage to hi fin to lyretail and to hi fin
lyretail the ultimate swordtail. Why can't you just go to the store and buy some? It's
because they require work. Sorting and culling each and every dropping of fry. In a pond
they would self destruct in no time at all.
Black swords I find are slow to sexually mature. For example I often raise a batch of
swords in a planted 65 gallon aquarium. The fry take at least a year before the first male
starts to show his sex. By this time they are close to three inches long. It can take a
male another six months to finish growing his sword. Most of the other colour fish from
the same batch of fry sex out in about three months and will not grow very large unless
they have lots of room.
I always breed my black hi fin lyretail females with black hi fin male swords this
results in a greater percentage of the high quality fish that I am after. Lyretail male
swords are not much if any good for breeding, but they sure look nice in a community
aquarium. One problem with black swords is that you cannot see a gravid spot on the
female. You can only watch for a bulging body and swollen vent.
I start my fry on live newly hatched brine shrimp and micro worms. They are soon eating
flake, frozen brine shrimp and beefheart formula as well as learning to fight the plecos
for well cooked zucchini.
Over the fifty years that I have been in this hobby I have been in and out of black
swords several times. I let my stock get too low or a mishap happens. Sometimes I stay
away from them for years but after a while I get the urge and have to start all over
again.
My present black swords throw neon fry. I am about to try a cross to my albino
pineapple swords sometimes called lemon swords. They are hi fin and I can add the lyretail
to them and have all my fry result in hard to find, hopefully high demand fish.
Just think I wrote this whole article passing on secrets that were passed on to me
without once mentioning that word confuses and scares people. It's all just Basic
Genetics.
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