Did you procure them from the wild? Having worked at a wholesaler I don't recall seeing them on availability lists - certainly not on the Florida fishfarms or Dolphin International's Singapore supplier.[b said:Quote[/b] (biggun110 @ April 22 2004,1:07)]Hi Nflytrap,
They will be shy for a good while just keep an eye on them. These are much smarter and thus more cautious fish than the regular swordtail species. Monties are very hard to catch in the wild because of this. Just feed them, do water changes weekly and sit and watch them. They will begin to accept you. The photos look great. I'm glad the shipment worked well.
Bobby
So you mean florida fishfarmers have been hybridizing the two species to produce really large swordtails? I've noticed some overly large female swords at the store(large as the female you sent me) but its probably because of either hormones, genes, or good conditions.[b said:Quote[/b] (biggun110 @ April 24 2004,9:56)]Hi Jim,
Yes, they were collected in the wild a few years ago and a strain established. There are 3-5 populations of monties in the hobby but these just have the block spotting. Some of the unspotted ones get really large -- like 8 inches including the sword. Monties are not raised in Florida or the Far East although Florida did some crosses with them in the early 90's. I have 2 huge females from a monty x helleri sword cross that was fertile for 3 generations and then stopped producing fry -- be it in ponds or tanks. The look like huge brink red swords with long long swords. The monties I sent Nflytrap are still young. That's male's sword with get much longer and the dorsal gets higher and rounder -- very impressive.