Female swordtail developing a sword

Female swordtail (Xiphophorus hellerii palenque) developing a sword (with the colors of the male in her sword). As you can see, the gravid spot is still there. This is not a pseudo gravid psot but a real gravid spot. She also had batches of fry along the way. She's about 10 months now.
It's known that older swordtail females that won't give reproduce anymore can develop a sword and an elongated anal fin but in those cases it won't get the black seam in the sword. The MSX genes generate morphological changes in fin tissue in female swordtails by overactive MSX genes. This is a hormonal influence. But this female isn't that old yet.
But this female shows also the black seam in the sword. I just have to wait and see wether this sword will become longer or if it will remain like this.
Her anal fin has not changed.

emeraldking said:

Female swordtail (Xiphophorus hellerii palenque) developing a sword (with the colors of the male in her sword). As you can see, the gravid spot is still there. This is not a pseudo gravid psot but a real gravid spot. She also had batches of fry along the way. She's about 10 months now.
It's known that older swordtail females that won't give reproduce anymore can develop a sword and an elongated anal fin but in those cases it won't get the black seam in the sword. The MSX genes generate morphological changes in fin tissue in female swordtails by overactive MSX genes. This is a hormonal influence. But this female isn't that old yet.
But this female shows also the black seam in the sword. I just have to wait and see wether this sword will become longer or if it will remain like this.
View attachment 304504View attachment 304505Her anal fin has not changed.

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that's a beautiful fish!
I have Swordtails of the same variety, and a young female of mine is turning into a male at the same time as yours

Sgooosh said:

that's a beautiful fish!
I have Swordtails of the same variety, and a young female of mine is turning into a male at the same time as yours

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But it's not a male. She's still a female.
But if she will turn into a male, she's a XX female with the allele combination Aa. Only such females can change sex. But again, she's still female and time will tell if she'll change sex or not.

Interesting!

emeraldking said:

But it's not a male. She's still a female.
But if she will turn into a male, she's a XX female with the allele combination Aa. Only such females can change sex. But again, she's still female and time will tell if she'll change sex or not.

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Oh i mean growing a tail, this is a very interesting story though

Here some more photos of female swordtails that have grown a sword without changing sex.

emeraldking said:

Here some more photos of female swordtails that have grown a sword without changing sex.
View attachment 305214View attachment 305215View attachment 305216

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are they still fertile?

Sgooosh said:

are they still fertile?

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Nope. They've had their batches of fry.