×
Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

getting only male fry

More
15 Feb 2009 16:25 #1 by endler63 (Paolo Di Paola)
HI there,

I had a fantastic swordtail female which gave me in the past many fry, but the only problem was that they were all males. Out of more than 80 fry that managed to survive in the main tank over two years no one was female. They were all beautiful males - quite big in size - some of them with a lyra swordtail. I gave many of them away when they grew up(my tank is only 125lt and there are other fish). Then when the female eventually died I was left only with a few males.
Has anybody any explanation for what happened?
Any one else had the same problem? Only males fry.

By to everybody

Paolo

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
15 Feb 2009 21:52 #2 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
pH and temp can affect the split of males/females for some fish, though I am not sure it is applicable to livebearers. I know I seem to get a lot more female than male endlers, I keep them at a low pH (for Endlers) at about 6.8-7.0 so maybe that is the reason. Do you know what your pH and temp were at the time?


Daragh

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
16 Feb 2009 02:13 #3 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Yes the PH and Temp. can effect the sex of some livebearers. I would guess swordtails are influenced by PH and temp. since they can also reverse there sex. So Paolo dont be surprised if you suddenly see fry in your tank. One of the hansom males could turn and take one for the team just to reproduce.

Daragh i used to keep the endlers in PH 7-7.2 and it would have been moderately hard.
I was getting roughly 3 males to every female.
But the Temp. would have been low. About 22-24c (72-76f).

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
20 Feb 2009 12:01 #4 by endler63 (Paolo Di Paola)
Thanks guys,

I tend to keep the temperature relatively low for livebeares (22-24 C)- that seems to keep them in better conditions and to give them a longer life span - whilst PH was between 7 and 7.5/8 for all that time.
I heard before that temperature and/or PH can affect the gender but wasn't sure about livebearers. Considering the values I had a the time I reckon was more the temperature though.

Take care,

Paolo

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
20 Feb 2009 13:47 #5 by Xeon (ioan micu)
Interesting thread:)
I was lucking at a book a few weeks ago. It was about guppy genetics, the autor is a vet in my town, he managed to get "super males" (males from witch the offsprings where all males regardless water parameters). Just another poin at your question.

If any of your "males" turns out in a female and u get fry please let me know. I've seen many times females turning in males swordtails but I don't know if they are able to reproduce.

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
20 Feb 2009 16:43 #6 by endler63 (Paolo Di Paola)
I will if it happens.
I want to add that all the males have grown up very big and healthy - their mother was really big - but that has taken a long time probably because of the temperature.
In the tank there are other livebearers (guppies and platys) but they are having the same number of female and male fry.

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
20 Feb 2009 23:00 #7 by Acara (Dave Walters)
I was talking to a lad the other night and he was saying that he can't find female livebearers in the shops for a long time now.I can't say I've noticed,as I havn't looked myself.Anybody else found this?

always on the lookout for interesting corys.pm me if you know off any!

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
20 Feb 2009 23:15 #8 by pkearney (Phil Kearney)
i have never heard of only male swordtails from a batch. usually they all look like females for a short while.if there is a dominant male the other males will delay growing the sword.
many years ago i got a big ugly gravid female swordtail who gave birth to a batch of young.i kept her with other females only to grow them on for showing.eventually she started growing a swordtail and changed into a male.the swordtail was about 4inches but took a 45degree angle after 2inches.i snipped it off at this point and won 1st place for male swordtails at the dsa show in the midland hotel.
this male then mated with another female and i gave the whole batch to tony keogh who gave me the female in the first place.
phil.

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
21 Feb 2009 11:37 #9 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
i have read various stories over the years be it mails becoming females and all male fry most have been dealing with swordtails

pH Dh and temp do seem to play a big part of this.

one suggestion is to remove one male and isolate it some times triggers the tail to grow when this new alpha male enters the tank the effect can be enough to trigger others

the problem may also be hormone related and the new male creates a new balance

do all to degree urban legend and needs more study but when one has no choice

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

Please Log in to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 0.050 seconds
Powered by Kunena Forum