Male or Female Swordtail?

[James G]

Hello everyone, I recently bought 2 swordtails from pet smart I know that one of them is female but the other I cant tell, its fins look like a female but it acts like a male, it also has the sword can anyone tell me if its a male or female? thanks.

 

[coralbandit]

All 3 look to be female to me .

 

[emeraldking]

Like Coralbandit already mentioned, all three pictures seem to show females. If you keep just one gender in one tank, dominance can occur. So, a dominant female can behave like a male.
The sword you've mentioned isn't an actual sword as with a male. She looks like a lyretail (extended outer tail finrays aren't perfect). Or even a cross between a simpson and a lyretail for that matter.

 

[coralbandit]

I agree with Stan on not a standard "lyre tail" .
Looks to have some long/hifin[Simpson] rays in the anal and dorsal fins that show in pictures .

 

[emeraldking]

Well Tom, your eyes caught the same characteristiscs with this swordtail as mine did... I guess, this must be a crossing.
Overhere an lfs has put regular, lyretails, simspons and high fin swordtails in one tank for the past year. Some crossings came out of it which are clearly not the most attractive fish I've seen. If you wanna breed real lyretails, there's not much choice. You need to crossbreed female lyretails with a regular male to maintain the breed. Male lyretails which are already adults can't use their gonopodium anymore. Or you should use a young male with a still shorter gonopodium. But with all the other varieties of swords, it's not always a succes to crossbreed them in order to get awesome looking swordtails.

Btw, long time no spoken to eachoher...