# Can you cross-breed platies & swordtails



## DUSTIN323

I've heard something about crossbreeding platies and swordtails I was wondering if any of ya'll know anything about this.


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## awesome kid

yes it can be done, but to me seems as if it would be harder than just breeding one or the other


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## cucci67

If you post this in the Livebearer section, you can get many more answers. They can be interbread, and they are very often. That is how you see all these different fin varieties of platies.


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## doggydad38

Platies and Swordtails are of the same gneus and will readily interbreed. This is how we've gotten so many color varieties of Swords. Many of the colors were first developed in the Platy and then bred into the Sword.
Tony


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## amelia

Platies and swords do interbreed. The result is sold by SOME, but very few, online fish stores and privately owned stores. They are a hybrid sometimes called the "salt and pepper platy". Some do not grow swords, but some grow swords later in life. They are not sterile, so you can breed the hybrids with each other. 

Information available online is limited about these fish..


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## amelia

Quick note--- I am pretty sure that the crossbred is also called "Variatus". This is usually the name that they will be sold under both online and in fish stores.. I am not sure if Xiphophorus variatus is the same fish as the variatus that is sold in pet stores, and from what I've seen it's not. Best not to confuse the two.


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## DUSTIN323

I read that the variatus is a variable platy which I think is the result from the interbreeding of maculatus (platy) and helleri (swordtail). Thanks for ya'lls help


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## solar-ton

it can be done but i would reccomend you try to breed a wiered platy and sword so you can create a new subspecies to make money and remember sell them to caring people(if youre even going to sell them at all)


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## user name

*Hi*

Hi iv got 3 sunset plattys 2 male and 1 female.i have also got a glass fish.a lot of my fish keep dieing.why is this.I have been told its the glass fish spreading disseses.is this true.I need HELP.6 fish have already died.
Thanks
User name


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## TheOldSalt

What's this? An actual non-spam post by user name?
Too late, bucko; I'm banning you anyway. I've been deleting your spams for the last half-hour, and I'm sick of you. As for your question, your fish are dying because you're a spamming moron who spends more time spamming than taking care of his fish.
On the off chance that you actually even HAVE any fish, go to the library & read some books on the subject. In a week you'll know everything you need to know to fix everything. By then your weeklong ban will be over and if you want to ask any more legitimate questions without spamming, we'll be glad to help.

By the way, it's very unusual for tough fish like platies to die while delicate ones like glassfish to live, so something weird is happening fer shure.


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## amelia

Solar-ton.. Breeding a "weird" platy with a swordtail would not create a new subspecies.. a platy crossed with a swordtail is still a variatus, no matter what it looks like.


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## Cichlid Man

Well said OldSalt, I couldn't of said it any better myself.


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## Z Man

Someone can correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know, there are only 'green' swordtails in the wild. So all other color morphs must have been interbred with platys or other previous crossbred swordtails.


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## solar-ton

what i meant was a fish that is rare but looks kinda strange like a pinapple sword and a bleeding heart platy or soemthing like that...


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## amelia

Unless you could get the strain to breed true, which would take years, there's no money in breeding a new color into the fish. The price you would get for the new strain would probably be very little more, if any at all, than the price of a regular swordtail..


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## doggydad38

Xiphophorus variatus is it's own specie of Platy and a "Salt and Pepper" Platy is actually the closest thing to a wild Platy that you will find. Wild caught individuals look like this. It was through selective breeding that the other "colors" were developed as all colors are seen on S and P Platies.
Tony


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## DUSTIN323

Z Man said:


> Someone can correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know, there are only 'green' swordtails in the wild. So all other color morphs must have been interbred with platys or other previous crossbred swordtails.


Actually I've been looking on aquabid and seeing wild caught swordtails that are silvery with blue, yellow with black, and a few other colors besides green.


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## TheOldSalt

There are a few other species of Swordtail, like the Blue Swordtail for example, but these are almost nver seen in the hobby. Ted Coletti has a colony of them, and the Mexican & Texan fish genetic banks have some, but aside from them only a small handful of people have these or other rare sword species. The main X. helleri Green Sword is of course a much more common & widespread fish, so much so that it is practically the only species most of us will ever need think about for stuff like in this thread.


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