Is My Lyretail Swordtail Fish A Male Or Female?

I’ve talked about my orange swordtail in another thread about a different situation but this time I’m just wondering: is my lyretail swordtail fish a male or female? (I’ve provided a few pictures of the orange swordtail to help!)

I’ve had him/her for a little over a year and when I first got it the female employee told me this orange swordtail was the male and the other dalmation swordtail was a female. Now I’m confident that the dalmation swordtail is for sure a female because of the rounded tail and triangular analfin. Not sure if she misidentified the orange one because, from what I’ve researched and read, females can’t have a sworded tail and I’m not sure if that also applies to the lyretail swordtail fish because with this orange lyretail one also has a triangular analfin. About February I unexpectedly found one little swordtail fry (currently 3-4 months and starting to grow a lyretail as well hehe!) and I knew it had to come from one of the swordtails but it surely couldn’t have been my dalmation swordtail because she’s been quite slI'm and the same since I’ve got her. So maybe it was a possibility, if the orange one is really female, it could’ve mated with my red male platy? I’m also just asking about it now since it appears the orange lyretail really seems to be quite big and pregnant looking with the squared-off-ish looking belly although the spot where the gravid spot should be doesn’t appear to be extremely dark as they do in some pictures I’ve seen online. Just a tad confused and really hope my orange lyretail is pregnant since I do want more fry like my one little one to make it too !

 

Female and likely the parent of the fry. She's plump but not super fat. Quite possible she was already pregnant when you bought her, as many female live bearers are. They can have several batches of fry from being bred just once, apparently storing sperm in a thing with most live bearers.

 

That's not even a female swordtail, that a lyretail female molly. A completely different fish that normally has issues with other fish and a mouth big enough to prove it.

 

That's not even a female swordtail, that a lyretail female molly. A completely different fish that normally has issues with other fish and a mouth big enough to prove it.

Wow I’m completely shocked hearing that! I’m guessing the pet store had kept the wrong kind of fish in the wrong tank since I clearly remember selecting from a tank labeled swordtails and being told lthis is one male and female swordtail”! No wonder I’ve never seen a picture of a swordtail with the tail the one I posted a picture of! I recently got two relatively small lyretail mollies (the black one I mentioned in my other thread regarding another issue, died from trying to become the doninant one over my female dalmation swordtail since I woke up to it missing scales ):! ). Comparing to the one orange male lyretail that was left of the two does look really similar to the one I was asking about. My female “swordtail” (now I know is actually a molly) actually does quite well with the other fish, and super friendly to us too ! There is some truth to what you said, in my experience with other mollies I was actually aware of being mollies, do tend to have some issues with the others (like the black one I recently got), I’m guessing not this one and the other new orange lyretail molly, thank goodness! The storing sperm for later use might be the case as well since I’ve read somewhere that mollies and platies don’t usually/never crossbreed. Thanks so much for the clarification, everything makes a lot of sense now

 

Wow I’m completely shocked hearing that! I’m guessing the pet store had kept the wrong kind of fish in the wrong tank since I clearly remember selecting from a tank labeled swordtails and being told lthis is one male and female swordtail”! No wonder I’ve never seen a picture of a swordtail with the tail the one I posted a picture of! I recently got two relatively small lyretail mollies (the black one I mentioned in my other thread regarding another issue, died from trying to become the doninant one over my female dalmation swordtail since I woke up to it missing scales ):! ). Comparing to the one orange male lyretail that was left of the two does look really similar to the one I was asking about. My female “swordtail” (now I know is actually a molly) actually does quite well with the other fish, and super friendly to us too ! There is some truth to what you said, in my experience with other mollies I was actually aware of being mollies, do tend to have some issues with the others (like the black one I recently got), I’m guessing not this one and the other new orange lyretail molly, thank goodness! The storing sperm for later use might be the case as well since I’ve read somewhere that mollies and platies don’t usually/never crossbreed. Thanks so much for the clarification, everything makes a lot of sense now

Mollies and platies cannot crossbreed as they are gentically and gonopodium(ly) incompatible, doesn't mean males won't try. Generally a female livebearer will retain enough sperm from one breeding for about 6 drops of fry, with a bigger fish like mollies this can equate to well over 25 fry every month.

 

Mollies and platies cannot crossbreed as they are gentically and gonopodium(ly) incompatible, doesn't mean males won't try. Generally a female livebearer will retain enough sperm from one breeding for about 6 drops of fry, with a bigger fish like mollies this can equate to well over 25 fry every month.

Now I know, thank you for your time and the info!

 

Mollies and Platys or Swordtails do not interbreed but Swords can interbreed with Platys and that's how many varieties have been created. Such as the wagtail sword.

That fish is definitely female. There is no gonopodium. Sexing livebearers is very easy.

 

Mollies and Platys or Swordtails do not interbreed but Swords can interbreed with Platys and that's how many varieties have been created. Such as the wagtail sword.

That fish is definitely female. There is no gonopodium. Sexing livebearers is very easy.

Yep! It is quite easy but based on the employee misinforming me stating it was a male had me super confused for a while because I knew there wasn’t a gonopodium and with it looking rather pregnant I decided to ask to make sure. It is indeed a female but as it turns out that someone replied and said it wasn’t even a swordtail at all, it was a female lyretail molly!

 

Yep! It is quite easy but based on the employee misinforming me stating it was a male had me super confused for a while because I knew there wasn’t a gonopodium and with it looking rather pregnant I decided to ask to make sure. It is indeed a female but as it turns out that someone replied and said it wasn’t even a swordtail at all, it was a female lyretail molly!

That may be. I was going to say Sword tail but that's probably because all the Mollies I have had were black.

 

It's actually a Gold Lyretail Sailfin Molly female. It could reach up to 5 inches in length, given proper space and lots of greens to eat. Orange would be closer to a red color.