Male Swordtail Not Interested In Female Platy

[lefty07603]

Hello, 
 
I have a neon swordtail and a red wag platy! They are in a 55 gallon with a school of harlequin rasboras and half a dozen guppies. I just introduced the platy a week ago! I know that platys and swordtails will interbreed without a problem but it seems the male swordtail has absolutely no interest in the platy. The swordtail was always timid. He gets along great with the smaller fish and never bugs o comes close to annoying them. He very friendly and a bit shy. I know some males are just more timid than others but he seems to have no interest in her at all. 
 
What are some causes of this? Once they reach a certain age do they lose interest in breeding? Also, he does have what i would call  large gonopodium but hes the only swordtail I've ever had, I'm more experienced with plays and guppies. I know there's a condition where due to breeding that there have been fish born with gonopodiums that are too large to be useful and therefore, they cant reproduce? has anyone heard of this? 
Thanks guys!

 

[RRaquariums]

I've never tried to breed the two but a friend of mine has and he said while they can breed together they may not be to interested in it since they have different looking males and females in there species it may take them a bit to figure out they can breed.

 

[mrstwalker]

add a few more females and see if that works, generally for every 1 male, 2 - 3 females is best when trying to breed.

 

[fluttermoth]

First of all, they may be mating when you're not looking. It isn't common to actually see them (and fish mating is over very quickly!).
 
It is lyretail swords where the males can't breed.
 
They probably will breed; there was an experiment a few years ago where they found that female platies prefer males with swords, even though their own males don't have them.

 

[lefty07603]

Thanks for the replies guys! Yeah then its probably good that he seems timid that way the female can live her life without being harassed. 
 
I guess I should just follow the rule of thumb: If they're life bearers, the opposite sex, and they're alive, then they will mate.
 
And Fluttermoth, thanks for sharing the story, that's interesting that platies prefer swords.