Green Swordtail question

[Devilishturtles]

I ordered some green swordtails to start carrying in my tanks at wally world and I have a question about them. I know in nature that swordtails are naturally "unattractive" in color and kinda bland. We carry the fancy swordtails now and these green ones were not green but grey and with hardly any swordtail. Not that the swordtail was eaten away or anything, just that it wasn't developed or something.

My question is..are these just young swordtails (the males anyway)? Will they get brighter in color and develop and longer "swordtails" on their swordtail?

Thanks!

 

[Menagerie]

I googled the green swordtails and found this interesting article:
http://asab.icapb.ed.ac.uk/exercises/alevel_psych/swordtail.html

This site has a good pic of an adult male: http://nis.gsmfc.org/nis_factsheet.php?toc_id=202

IMHO, you have juvies.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Sweet articles, many thanks menag.

They are some big juvies, but I agree with you on that. The swordtails are there, just little stumps =)

 

[Menagerie]

Happy to Help!
My fiancé and I were talking last night about the lack of color in the community tank. I want blues or greens (so hard to find with dyes) in there. Reds and orange are covered by my silvertips and Serpae tetras. I am not wild about the idea of livebearers in that tank, but I may have to look into swordtails--doing the search for the green swordtails was a real eye-opener!

 

[violet]

If you are looking for greens and blues, try; green fire tetras, similar to neons in shape and size, they are also schooling and blue tetras, sometimes called blue mirror tetras or mirror blue tetras, also schooling. I have the mirror blues and they are beautiful.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Are they Canada natives? Never heard of those before violet...

 

[Menagerie]

Devilish--just got back from my LFS—they had mature green swordtails. The mature GS were nicely colored. The females had very light green bodies and the males were very good looking! However, since seeing them, they are not what I what for my tank--too big at 4".
I've never seen tetras in other colors than plain or red. Hmmm, need to do more research!

 

[Devilishturtles]

Thanks menag. I was hoping that that was the case. I may get 2 or 3 tommorow to put in with my betta and see what happens. I think they are cool fish and from the reseach I have done online, I can't wait till they mature. No LFS around me has the GS, I have looked! And 4 inches?! I bet they were really cool!
Thanks again!

 

[violet]

Not sure where they are from devilish, I know I can get them here, obviously, but not sure where else they are sold. Might have to try looking it up.