(Xiphophorus helleri)
Origin
The story of these viviparous fishes, belonging to the family Poeciliidae, begins in 1840, when the famous botanist Karl Heller was leading an expedition to Mexico, with the aim of collecting tropical plants, especially aquatic.
One day, while resting on the shore of a small lake near the town of Orizaba, Heller noticed a few small, beautifully colored fish that iridescent in the water illuminated by the sun's Rays. They were playing like children, who do not want to go to bed in the evening.
It is widespread in Central America, from Guatemala to southern Mexico.
The original form is green, the so - called" xipho verde", but after repeated selections appeared several coloristic varieties: xipho red with black tail, xipho red with red eyes, xipho albino, simpson xipho – with elongated dorsal wing, tuxeto – with a black band that stretches from the base of the caudal peduncle to the edge of the operculum (can be red or green).
Xipho black-originated from tuxeto, in which the black lateral band is very much wide covering the entire flanks of the body and the outside of the fins, which remain transparent, berliner – with black dots irregularly arranged on the red background of the body, xipho veil – in which the paired and unpaired fins are much elongated.
Xipho Food
Xipho fish are omnivorous fish, so they need a variety of food.
You can give your fish a food based on flakes or granules specially created for them.
It is also advisable that in addition to these, xipho fish benefit from live food such as larvae or frozen food.
All these varieties can be found in specialty stores.
Xipho Appearance
In size, the female reaches 12 cm, the male is smaller. Sexual dimorphism is evident, the male having the anal fin modified into a copulatory organ, called gonopodium, in veiled varieties gonopodium grows very much, becoming, because of this, inoperative.
Dimorphism is also manifested by the existence in the male of a sword-shaped extension of the radii at the base of the caudal fin, popularly being called "swordfish". It should be emphasized an interesting aspect related to sexual dimorphism and sex ratio. It is about the reversibility of the sexes and the disproportion between the sexes when depositing.
At some point a well-developed female changes her body conformation, her sword and gonopodium appear, turning into a male. This phenomenon is also observed in other viviparous species (Xiphophorus maculata).
Due to external factors (pH etc) there are physiological changes that turn the female into a male, the phenomenon being reversible, such a false male can turn back to the female, being able to give birth to Cubs again.
Xipho Features
In nature it lives in mostly slow flowing waters, with an average hardness of 10-15 dGH. These rivers pass over soils that may be more or less acidic and flow into the sea, where they are decidedly more alkaline.
So fish have preferences for neutral, slightly alkaline water. Prefer a pool with many plants and with ordinary water (from the tap) well oxygenated and filtered. Being a fish with a high metabolism prefers larger pools (50-80 l).
They are active and relatively peaceful fish, able to live in common aquariums, but eat chicks smaller than 1 cm. Males are aggressive, in the aquarium there is a hierarchy of males, the largest and strongest becoming the dominant male, which has the first access to food and mating.
Reproduction Xipho
Breeding is very easy, the female 3-4 days before the estimated date of birth will separate in a multi-plant aquarium with well-filtered and ventilated water. During this period the female will be fed with live, varied food.
It will be taken into account that after a unilateral feeding with tubifex, the female will gain weight and give birth to a small number of puppies, and many of them will be non-viable.
After 2-3 births, the female can give birth to between 100-250 Cubs. After birth the female will pull out so as not to eat the Cubs.
