Catemaco platy

One of my favorite wild platy species is the Catemaco platy (Xiphophorus milleri) from Mexico. This kind of platy knows two kinds of males. One that stays small and has got a black gonopodium and one that gets bigger and has got a gold colored gonopodium. Also this platy does prefer moderate and lower water temperatures.

emeraldking said:

One of my favorite wild platy species is the Catemaco platy (Xiphophorus milleri) from Mexico. This kind of platy knows two kinds of males. One that stays small and has got a black gonopodium and one that gets bigger and has got a gold colored gonopodium. Also this platy does prefer moderate and lower water temperatures.
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Very nice looking fish!

I just moved mine to a new tank where I could see them better. They are prolific...

They are the only livebearer I still keep. There's something about them that keeps me looking.

GaryE said:

There's something about them that keeps me looking.

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Well, they do have a certain charm.

When I was a kid, the platy forms at my local store weren't the rigidly set commercial forms we see now. I could pass three aquarium stores on my walk back from school, and one specialized in platys. He had a large tank and all the varieties went into it. In retrospect, a lot of those platy varieties were very close to wild forms. We don't see those really interesting but less solidly coloured forms anymore.

In local stores here, all the platys are hybrids with swordtails and maybe variatus X maculatus. If you breed them, you get balloon deformity fry mixed with large individuals with short swords. You get a diverse bunch of fry, for sure, but to my mind, they aren't platys anymore.

I think my milleri remind me of them, as wild form fish themselves. They don't take a lot of space in the fishroom, and they breed so steadily there are always different patterns appearing. I suppose it could be called nostalgia, but I think it's also ongoing interest. I'm a hobby misfit in that I always like to look at fish as they evolved in nature, and not as breeders created them.

GaryE said:

I'm a hobby misfit in that I always like to look at fish as they evolved in nature, and not as breeders created them.

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Well, I'm not any different from you. When it comes to platies or any other kind of livebearer, I prefer the wild forms over the breeding forms. I love both disciplines (wild and breeding forms) but wild does have my bigger preference. At many relevant forums I'm a misfit as well. For most forum members who love livebearers, love those breeding forms over wild forms.

If I may make a remark when it comes to lfs's nowadays and in the past, I prefer those in the past. I can not speak for such stores abroad but in our country, fish store owners still had the passion for fish and more knowledge than the present stores. Also the choice in fish was a lot bigger than the present day. Nowadays, it's so many of the same kind of fish.

And yes, you're right... The Catemaco platy comes in different numbers of tiny black spots. But besides the X.milleri, I also love other wild platy species. Have you seen my other topic about the X.xiphidium?

X xiphidium is a sore spot for me. I had them for several generations and lost mine due to a stupid mistake on my part. Truly, the rarest of the rare I would like to keep in maculatus. It sounds common, but isn't.

GaryE said:

X xiphidium is a sore spot for me. I had them for several generations and lost mine due to a stupid mistake on my part. Truly, the rarest of the rare I would like to keep in maculatus. It sounds common, but isn't.

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You do know that X.xiphidium is not a maculatus, huh? I also have some wild maculatus species overhere, btw...
I've got X.maculatus purpur (Belize), X.maculatus , Chuco's place 2019 (Mexico) and X.maculatus Rio Verde 2022 (Mexico). The last one mentioned are my self collected ones.

I know the difference. I looked for years for X maculatus, but the only time I have ever seen wilds is in Belize.

I also have a soft spot for nezahualcoyotl and birchmani, along with xiphidius. All are wonderful livebearers.

Interesting that they hail from Mexico yet like cooler temperatures

The winter temp around the lake where milleri resides gets down to 13 to 16c, so it is a tiny bit fresh. Not Canadian fresh, mind you, but cool.

davros said:

Interesting that they hail from Mexico yet like cooler temperatures

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The mistake that a lot of people make is to assume that fish coming from a tropical country must be tropical as well. But it depends on the location within that country, wether the environment of those fish should be labeled as being tropical or subtropical. There are more livebearers which are endemic to a tropical country but are subtropical fish.