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i have a group of 10-12 swordtails. Mixed sex.

I have greens, red eyes, red, and one that is red and black.

Anyway, how come it is that they stay in groups of their own color. the red eyes are staying by themselves, and the greens stay to themselves.

They males arent trying to breed with any females outside of their coloration.


Now i thought this is wierd as most of my readings say that they will mix all of the time.


I notcied this with my mollies as well. I had a group of black mollies and a group of white mollies, and it was like this for many months but they never mixed. The males only staying with their own color females.


So what is up with that.

I guess it is a built in survival thing, staying with your own kind etc. Similar thing happens with bronze and albino cories.

IME livebearers also seem to have preferred partners too, so if the colour groups came from separate breeders/batches they may have also developed relationships before they mixed in your tank.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

My Platies do the same thing!!! I have a red wag male that came with a sunset wag. He only chases her. I got two sunset females for him and he won't look at them. I also have a group of dwarf coral platies that only chase each other or the red wag male since he's the only other red fish. The two rainbow platies stick together. The female sunsets are completely left alone!

I would assume it is some sort of survival thing too. Especially since they come in so many colors, maybe it's safer to try to mate with fish that look the same to be sure they're the same kind? Weird.

The pottery that growls!

My marble sailfin molly chases both females around the tank (one platinum and one marble), but does pay decidedly more attention to the marble one. My gold sailfin male chases the platinum female around but generally pays no attention to the marble female. However, the marble male is definitely the top dog in the tank. He puts up with nothing from the gold molly, even though the gold one is much bigger.

i read in an issue of TFH that livebearer are notorious for selective breeding. It the stated that experts suspect that it is for that reason that swordtails developed their tail.. physical attraction to long tails. Another issues explore how endler's are often doubbed a seperate species becuase of their appearence and preference for other endlers, even thought they are just regular guppy's.. apparently livebears are attract to physical differences

Sorry to take your thread, Chris, but I have a problem related to breeding colors now! The dwarf coral platys have finally stopped being shy in my tank, and now the two males are constantly chasing and trying to mate with Mr. Red, the male red wag. They are completely ignoring the 4 dwarf coral females I got for them!!! They don't even chase the sunset females or the rainbow. They just want the red wag!

I got my Platys in the 1 male to 2 females ratio overall, but since the two males are obsessed with my original male, it's not looking so good. Should I just leave them? Will they ever give up on trying to mate with him? Should I just take them back to the LFS? I just worry that Mr. Red will get worn out being chased by these two constantly. The sad thing is, he's a lot bigger than the dwarves, so it's not like he can go hide somewhere to get away from them!

The pottery that growls!

If you asked me.. it because Mr. Red is bigger that the other boys are challenging him. We aquarist use the gonopodium to sex the platy's even though most of us know that females tend to be bigger. who to say that interspecies sexing isn't a function of size..
That and the fact that I'm sure that Mr. Red is pretty seductive being that he's red and all J/k

i mean it can also be that the corals are getting all territorial and challenging Mr. Red's Dominance..

Moral of the story .. I would let it be. and allow aquarium politics to develop naturally (it being platy's)different story with aggressive species

Unless fish show dominance by humping just like dogs do, i'm pretty sure they think he's a big pretty girl! I just hope he doesn't get worn out. I know the rule for livebearers is two females to a male so that they don't wear out the girl, but two males chasing another male seems like it would just be super stressful!!!

The pottery that growls!

Are you sure they are trying to mate? Chasing in itself is more likely to be an act of showing dominance.

They are doing the thing where they line up to him and point their gonopodium at him and jab at him with it. I'm pretty sure it's trying to mate! Mr. Red just gets upset by this and tries to swim away, but the dwarfs follow him all over!

The pottery that growls!

Yeah they are just mixed up. I would guess that after a while they will figure out that it's a pointless endeavor. A nice new big female might convince them.

Those poor fishies... right now my tank is slightly overstocked as is, so adding another female isn't going to be an option, I think! That's why I was wondering if I should just instead take back some of the dwarfs!

The pottery that growls!

My platies generally stick to females of their own colour, How many of your male platies are transexual? I had two, both were female when I bought them. anyway, the orginal platies I bought will generally stick to their own colour,
but the fry from them doesn't seem bothered about the colours, chasing any females but not ones very different coloured, my mango male platy fry will chase the highfin & the two black normal finned females but not the damalation females. What colours do you have? I have "mango" platies, Transculent yellow in colour with vivid red fins, Dalamation platies, an dark orange with black fins high fin. two more platies that are the same colour as the previous ones but are not high fins, they look the same in everyway but one, One is pregnant while the other isn't. Orange coloured platies with shimmering green on the sides.
I think it's probably something to do with their instinct and survial sense.