Can Someone Please Help Me Id This Strain?

[arvlyn]

Wow, don't know what she is except that she's BEAUTIFUL! I would have bought her in an instant, just like you did!

 

[modaz]

it was in a catalogue that my wholesaler uses, have noticed that some of the fish in there are labelled as something strange though, sometimes used by importers to brighten up the interest and get them sold. seen blue platy labelled and silverline shadows, blacks as charcoals, and even blonde guppies and cherry tuxs. But i do like the name of copper blacks, whether they are or not is a different matter.
They are defo a cross with the blacks though as they have the classic white eyes and the celophane finnage

 

[LauraFrog]

Yeah, I think there's a black platy in that jumble somewhere. Her face and part of her dorsal fins is jet black.
Something else I noticed that might or might not be important, you can't see it on the photos. When she faces the glass, the insides of her gills are actually white. it's definitely a marking, not some horrible fungus or what-not.

I can't believe I didn't grab her the absolute second I saw her. I'm in there all the time, every day I can I walk past the tanks and I go, wow, that's an attractive fish. But if I bought every wow, that's an attractive fish I would have overstocked the average swimming pool by now.

Next chance I get I'm going to see if there's any chance I can get more of those. If I could get a virgin and a male it would be ideal. I doubt it though, they always buy in a mix of colours. Platies aren't their best sellers, the more flashy tropicals do a much faster turnover, so there's not that much space dedicated to platies in there.


EDIT: Our TV is broken and tomorrow it goes to get fixed in a town about half an hour away. There's a pet shop there. You'd have to assume there would have been at least five or six of these in a drop so I'm going to see if any have turned up there. If there are some it might be a local supplier, which narrows down the possible origin of the cross a lot.

 

[LauraFrog]

Interesting development. I found a translation of a German book on fishkeeping in the library. Originally published in 1990, not exactly recent, but it has a photo of a black platy with greenish iridescent scales - an identical fish could have been one of Striker's parents.

The swordtails in that tank were females and so was the yellow and the red platy. The only male platy was a black and blue speckled male with white base and mickey mouse marking. Not a foul looking fish by any standard, and not vastly dissimilar to Striker, so might get nice fry if she is bred by him.