MAX BLAKE: Livebearer breeding success

You should all have read that back in early June a mini expedition (of a sort) went up to the midlands from the CFZ to try and bring back some new species of livebearing fish for the CFZ collections. Dave, Jon and myself set out bright and early to try and get all the lots we wanted and to a degree, we succeeded.

Two of the rarer species we brought back were Limia grossidens and Xiphophorus nezahualcoyotl. Both Jon and I love Xiphophorus species, and many of the more obscure species have wonderful species names such as X. montezumae and X. cortezi, all named on a Aztec theme. We were trying really hard to breed both species in the same tank when disaster struck and we lost our male X. nezahualcoyotl. Though this is a problem to breeding, we had our hopes pinned on their strange reproductive biology. Like all members of the group, both Limia and Xiphophorus give birth to live young but the females can also store sperm to fertilise future broods. We crossed our fingers and hoped that they had mated before he died.

Just over a month later we had some good news. We had around six fry living in the tank with the adults but due to their very small size we could not determine their species. Eventually, as luck would have it, they were large enough by the time I got down here for the Weird Weekend for me to be able to determine their species. Not only had we bred the more obvious Limia grossidens, whose fry show the black banding and obvious silver spot surrounded by black on their dorsal fin, but we also had 2 fry, probably both females, of the Xiphophorus! The two species had released their fry at the same time and we now have a very small colony of both species living together happily. It will take another year at least before both species get up to full colony status, but more importantly, we need to hope that the Xiphophorus female releases another brood and we get a male this time!

In the meanwhile, if anyone (David Marshall!) knows of someone keeping, breeding or selling this species please get in touch with Jon or myself and you can help us conserve this wonderful species.