the real sword-bearer (Xiphophorus helleri helleri) is at all one of the most known and most popular aquarium fish about. its home-waters lie in the southeast Mexico, in Guatemala and in Honduras, where it occurs only on the Atlantic side as pure freshwater-type. Beside the helleri-Unterart, 3 further subtypes still live in the spread-area.
Shape The name-giving characteristic of the entire type is the "sword", a showy extension of the low tail flukes*-rays with the male. This sword moved out approximately on length only with the real sword-bearer and with the Montezuma-Schwertträger while it is not so clearly distinctive with the other types of the type.
The real sword-bearer's female becomes up to 12 cm of length clearly bigger than the slimmer as well, gestrecktere males, who measure without sword until 8 cm. The reason-color the normal things - molds (game -) an iridescent brown-green is. From the gill-cover-edge proceeds in body-middle of one gloomily bordering ones, light-red vertical stripe, that changes to the sword-fort-sentence with the male and finishes with the female at the tail flukes*-basis. The sword even is strikingly yellow, orange-red or shining green and always black bordered.
Reproduction The reproductive-behavior deviates negligibly from that of the other viviparous tooth-carps. The males harass the females very sincerely and persevering. Whether the colorful sword-fort-sentence is entitled to a special signal-function on that occasion, is controversial among the different authors. During the Liebesspieles, the males execute odd cradle-movements (Wiegebalz). The females bear up to 180 young-fish per throw.
Sex-conversion All young sword-bearers are said female or better at first, before-female and either develops to normal, fertile females only with admission into the sexually mature, or but they are converted to males. If the conversion takes place to the male with attaining the sexually mature, the smaller, so-called early-males are created. If however, the conversion occurs, we get the bigger late-night-males first, after the animals lived a while as sexually mature females. The female characteristics (penetrated physique, pregnancy-stain, ovaries) degenerate while the male characteristics (testicles, sword-fort-sentence) become more and more evident.
Breeding-forms Sword-bearers are by nature variable like many viviparous tooth-carps and let itself cruise easily with relatives types. Long-time crossing-attempts led to an almost conspicuous form-variety. So, the beautiful one is red sword-bearers a crossing of the real sword-bearer's brown-green normal-form with the red color-game of the near relative Platys (Xiphophorus maculatus). The green sword-bearer with the blackish fin-drawing is a product of the real sword-bearer (brown-green) with the Wagtail-Spielart of the Platy.
Especially splendid breeding-forms are the hochflossigen Simpson-Schwertträger, of which recently numerous further color-games were out-bred, like the Wagtail-Simpson-Schwertträger and the Tuxedo-Simpson-Schwertträger. The Simpson-Merkmal (veil-shaped back-fin) is dominant and is based on a faulty-function of the Hyphophyse, that regulates the body-growth as you know. There are also doubles-sword-bearers, with which the upper ones and the low tail flukes*-rays moved out, on the market meanwhile. The breeding-forms are valid altogether as heat-needier and sensitive than the exit-forms.
Further types The already mentioned Platy (Xiphophorus maculatus), from which also many breeding-forms exist, is the most known types of the real sword-bearer.
Very variably, also the pretty Papageien-Platy (X) is in the drawing. variatus, males until 5,5 cm, females until 7 cm, that connects at the spread-area of the Platy in Mexico with many location-forms north.
The relatively inconspicuous Montezuma-Schwertträger (X). montezumae, males until 3,5 cm, females until 6,5 cm, from north-east-Mexico is hardly looked after with us as type, against it however frequently to the in-crossing for new breeding-forms uses.
The small dwarf-sword-bearer (X). pygmaeus, until 4 cm, comes only in one engbegrenzten spread-area, in the Rio Axtla in the northeastern Mexico before, where it in contrast to other sword-bearers of the same habitat (X). montezumae, X. variatus, deep and strongly streaming water-layers prefers.
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