Breeder Selection - Xiphophorus alvarezi - Includes breeding vat setup 

I feel if people take the time to comment, they deserve a response. Also, the comments sometimes allow me to expound or explain. Charles

You figured it out! But Susie is planning on making them pay their way. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 Haha the feral fish can pay through youtube maybe. Possibly like a feral fish live stream cam? Everyone loves them, myself included.

Haha this is so true I LOVE seeing the sump fish

@@Adam_West_Batman We're looking into livestreaming the sumps. There are technical issues such as reaching the wi-fi underwater. Charles

Susie selects for size and color when picking breeders. Charles

By the way, a couple of days ago we did a video on welding our 300-gallon breeder vats. Stormy and Carl were featured. I don't know when that video will be posted. Charles

Hmm since they are super easy to breed?

I like the wild species, but also like aquarium strains that can be molded into what you want. Charles

There are some livebearers, mostly non-Poeciliidae species, that aren't so super easy to breed. Charles

Thank you. It is fun to create those variations through selection. Don't encourage Susie, she might change her mind on Greenhouse 4. Charles

I'm pretty sure it's genetic, but a few generations of separation of the lines should demonstrate that. It'll be interesting to see how much the freckling can be enhanced by selection. Charles

Thank you. Charles

Thank you. We are learning from viewer comments what we should be doing! Charles

You really shouldn't encourage her! By the way, tomorrow we are filming Stormy welding cracked 300-gallon vats. I'm not sure when it will be posted, but it will a lot of Stormy. Charles

Sure. Most "purged" fish are perfectly good. They just didn't meet my breeding requirements at the time. They are sold. Injured or deformed fish are purged by releasing them into the floor gutters where they can live out their lives as best they can. If they are too injured to survive, they are quickly dispatched to reduce their suffering. The freckles are melanin. The Innes book was one of my early fish bibles. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 Thanks!

Thank you for watching! Charles

The swordtails in the sumps are likely hybrids of aquarium strains and some wild swordtail species. The melanomas come from a mixture of Xiphophorus hellerii and X. maculatus genes. So I don't think they happen often in the pure species. If you go to www.xiphophorus.txstate.edu/, the Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center and search for "melanoma," you will get some articles on the genetics involved. Charles

Before the Winter Storm I captured some of those mollies to set up for breeding. We recently processed them and I think we videoed that. If so, that video should be coming up in the next week or so. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 cant wait to see! good fish keeping ;)

He is being deprived. When the greenhouses are at full capacity there are usually a couple of fatalities a day to keep Oso and Maya in sushi. With the reduced population that isn't happening much. Charles

We have only been raising Red Cherries, but have just acquired from a long time customer four other colors. We keep the very best as breeders. The good ones, but not exceptional, are eagerly bought by our wholesale customers. The pale, badly colored shrimp become cichlid food. Charles

Thank you. Male subtypes probably vary by species. I'm aware of and do see three male subtypes in Xiphophorus hellerii and its hybrids. Small, medium, and large males. Unless a small or medium male has some spectacular characteristic I want to work with, I always choose large males. Apparently the gene controlling these three subtypes is found on the Y chromosome, has no counterpart on the X chromosome, and comes in three alleles, not surprisingly: small, medium, and large. As a result of the gene being on the Y chromosome without a counterpart on the X chromosome, the male determines the size of his male offspring. I'm curious about any other subtypes. Do you have any references I could take a look at? Charles

We have more on the way! Charles

I kind of like it too. Charles

Unfortunately, Xiphophorus mayae was one of the casualties of the Winter Storm. We lost all of them. We plan to attend the American Livebearer Association convention in Florida in October to restock at their auction. Charles

It is a very pretty species. We try to give them pristine water conditions and lots of good food. Charles

Thank you. I like to imagine y'all are in front of me and we're having a conversation. Yes, we lost Xiphophorus mayae in the Winter Storm. We still have Xiphophorus cortezi, Rio Coy Tambaque. We had but lost in Hurricane Harvey Xiphophorus nezahualcoyotl and Xiphophorus clemenciae. Charles

Thank you for watching them! Charles

Personal preferences can drive evolution of color, patterns, finnage, size, etc. in animals in captivity. I don't have a preference but am interested in the genetics. Also, I wonder if both freckled and non-freckled fish exist in the wild. I'm glad the fish are doing well for you. Charles

Thank you. Susie selects breeders for color and size. In any breeding program there are culls. We only ship adult shrimp so they've already been culled. Our culls become cichlid food. We just got in four other color varieties from a long time customer. They are in quarantine in 45 gallon aquaria in the office. We look forward to breeding and improving them. Charles

I'm surprised your Kois won't eat hornwort. We keep Koi for the production of greenwater to feed to Daphnia and Moina. Our Koi chow down on it. Susie is working on pricing for large quantities of hornwort. We have offered smaller amounts and will do so soon on our website (goliadfarms.com/). Charles

Thank you. Charles

We got the X. alvarezi at ALA auction 4/28/12, seller #62. Somewhere I have that seller's information. Charles

Thank you. That is a nice species of fish. Charles

Yes, livebearers thrive in outdoor pools. We will begin offering fish again on our website (goliadfarms.com/) very shortly now that we've completed inventorying and rebuilding breeding colonies after the Texas Winter Storm. Charles

I'm certain some shrimp get eaten, but we still collect 100s from a 55-gallon livebearer vat each breeding cycle. By the way, Red Cherry Shrimp are a very good color food for cichlids. We stock some in our cichlid vats and they do maintain populations even with voracious cichlids if there is enough cover. Charles

We started our hatchery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a much colder climate due to its 7,000 foot (~2,150 m) altitude and more northerly latitude. So, it can be done. We will continue making videos as long as people watch them. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 It can be done, for sure. But heat is pretty expensive in germany, and so is land. Right now i couldn't even start "summer" tubbing without a heat source. Maybe my own strain of guppy's could go outside, they live now for dozens of generations unheated and get the occasional 13-14°C water temp in my house. I don't know, all in all it seems pretty annoying to make something comparable to your farm work. But, as soon as the pandemic allows it, we will have an educational hydroponic system with local fish. (My place of work is a youthclub and one of our satelite projects is a place were kids can participate in gardening and farm work. Always through a green lense i guess.)

@@dotterei5974 Sounds like a great place for youth! We once helped a local church set up an aquaponics operation for providing veggies to low income neighborhoods. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 well, we get by ;-) Honestly, i'm not sure what to say. Don't get me wrong, it is great that you did this, but it sounds complete absurd to me that their was even a need for that.

@@dotterei5974 (Warning: a political statement follows. I try to avoid politics on this channel, but...oh, well...) After all, this is America where we believe in corporate welfare but nothing for the poor. Charles

Good question. First of all, all new stock is acquired during the summer and quarantined in outside vats not connected to the recirculating systems. The quarantine consists of extended isolation and possible prophylactic treatment followed by the introduction of a sampling of our other fish. This is to make sure they aren't carrying something they tolerate while our other might not (there is a story behind this involving Limia perugiae and L. vittata). Next, we've only had two incidents of disease in the greenhouses. After Hurricane Claudette in 2003 Greenhouse 1 was open air for a while. Something carried in Chilodonella, probably a fish eating bird. It devastated our rainbowfish while not bothering the mollies and cichlids that we were beginning to raise. We treated it with salt to 6 ppt and acriflavine. I think the acriflavine was a mistake. It apparently completely sterilized almost all the surviving rainbowfish and impacted molly fertility for 4-6 months. The cichlids were fine. The second incident wasn't really a disease. There is a tiny crustacean (whose name I don't recall at the moment) that feeds on Paramecium and other single celled organisms that thrive in our systems. It doesn't directly hurt fish but it likes to attach to gills to capture food passing by the gills. That seems to really bother mollies, but doesn't seem to have much effect on other fish. Once we had that diagnosed by a fish pathologist, upon his recommendation we started twice a year prophylactic treatments of 6 ppt salt and malachite green. That works well to keep that organisms population at levels that don't harm the mollies. By the way, that organism doesn't cause problems in aquaria because it starves due to lack of adequate single celled food. We also 3-4 times a year coat the food we feed to our fish (exclusively Purina Aquamax foods) with praziquantel (a wormer) to control internal parasites. Now that I've written this, I think we should do a video so I can explain in more detail. Charles

Thank you. Charles

Thank you. We don't plant them. We simply drop a stalk between the vats with a joint in the water. It roots in the water and sends up shoots. We have to periodically pull the plants out when they start pushing pipes around and getting in the way. We keep a good stalk to replace that plant. The rest of it goes on compost piles and litterworm beds to be converted to rich soil. Charles

That temperature is adequate for most Xiphophorus species. And the two species have similar water chemistry requirements. I would worry about swordtail egg and fry predation. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 Well bit of that would be welcome. I have too manya other hobbies going on to do any serious breeding from time to time I like to raise a batch of fry for the fun of it. But that is really about it. Don't bite more then you can chew particularly when the hobby involves animals or people.

@@mauricematla1215 Sounds like you need to prune some other hobbies. You have to keep your priorities straight. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 I see your point. But teaching special needs kids Judo is quite fun and rewarding too

@@mauricematla1215 Okay. Well, that is a good hobby. You need to keep doing that. Charles

We have not had Xiphophorus montezumae, but we should get them. I think Stormy likes it! We used natural fiber water (swamp) cooler pads that are found in dry climates like Santa Fe, NM. I haven't been able to find them in Texas. I don't recommend the plastic or plasticized pads. They could be toxic. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 Thank you for the info!

@@goliadfarms7029 Aspen Swamp Cooler Pads by chance? "Aspen pads are made of aspen fibers woven together." do they deteriorate as fast if fully submerged

@@popparock6506 That sounds like the product or a very similar one. They are pretty durable even under water. Charles

Yes, we will do that. Charles

We sell online to individuals at our website (goliadfarms.com/). We currently are offering only shrimp and scuds, having taken all fish off until we completed our inventorying and rebuilding breeding colonies. We just completed that effort this week. We will be listing some fish in the next few days. Charles

@@goliadfarms7029 Thanks so much for your reply, I’ll be keeping an eye on your store and look forward to seeing it grow again. I’m fond of livebearers and hope to be able to support your work at least a little in the future. Best of luck to you.

We will be offering these two lines this fall on our website (goliadfarms.com/). Charles

Goldfish will eat some fry, but we've kept livebearers with goldfish. Charles

I think, thank you? Charles