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breezyb_gw

What Happened to Platies & Swordfish???

breezyb
19 years ago

The "Molly Mystery" thread started me thinking on this one.

I remember back in my grandfather's day (he was a serious livebreeder hobbyist), that swordfish were LARGE, brightly colored, & had swords as long as or even longer than their body length. These days, the few times I even see swordfish in the stores, they're absolutely pathetic. Small, weak-looking, & with the males having swords no longer than an inch, if that. Is it that breeders stopped finding them challenging enough?

As for platies (which I adore), I have been searching fruitlessly for nice healthy ones. I had a nice school of different varieties in an extremely sunlit tank, & they really, really kept the algae down (since while they're omnivorous, vegetable matter are big favorites with them). After a few years, I am down to just one HUGE "Mickey Mouse" female Platy, & would love to obtain more, but every single fish store (unfortunately there aren't many around here in Culpeper, VA), has nothing but really sad examples.

These are such wonderful fish!!! I had almost considered dismantling my tank until I found out what terrific algae controllers Platies were. Just can't believe how difficult it is to find healthy ones.

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