This is the shot
I took of the fish being used for a 1 year experiment
at a friend's house back east. He had decided to take one of
the
largest
swordtails, the Xiphophorus montezumae, and get it to
the
possible 9 or 10 inches that they are reputed to grow.
Through
heavy feeding of
live foods, top
water quality and a variety of other
tricks he got them to 5.5 inches, the size seen by most who
have
kept this fish. However, because he had developed them into
essentially very fat fish, they appeared to others to be much
larger.
However, he did do a great job of getting them as big as they
were
going to get. His efforts may explain stories that still
exist today of
6-8 inch fish reputed to have been developed in the 1960s.
A closeup of the
nearest male, showing the high back and
solid look, making this fish look larger than it actually
was.
These
X. montezumae
ended up topping out at 5.5 inches.
Not quite the 9 or 10 we hoped for.
I have known
collectors that swear these fish can be 8 inches
plus in the wild. I am sure that is true, but also keep in mind
that a truly big fish, certainly in the
aquarium hobby, is also likely to be a
very old fish.
Further discussion of this
issue, and the preserved bodies of
the 3 X. montezumaes at above left can be seen in the video
"Select Aquatics
presents - Raising Large Swordtails"
This
is one of my X. montezumaes, that though very large,
usually
ended up about the same size- 5.5 inches from nose tip to tip
of
sword. The X. montezumae
is known for its incredibly long
sword, fully reaching 1.5 times its body length.
|