MIAMI SWORDTAILS - A hobbyist's outdoor "fishroom"

   For the past fourteen years (2008-2022), specialized in cultivated strains of Xiphophorus and a few wild species of livebearers. Hi-fin delta-shape finnage was and remains the main focus of my selective breeding programs.

   Welcome to my outdoor "fishroom", solely dedicated to the long-term 
selective breeding and maintenance of hi-fin cultivated strains of Xiphophorus, as well as few domesticated wild species of livebearers. This simple website is to be read as a sort of archive, displaying since 2008 a hobbyist's humble progress in maintaining selective strains of fancy livebearers in a natural and outdoor fishroom (located in Miami, FL - USA). My main goal over more than a decade has been to conserve rare and quality fancy strains, rarely opening the fishroom to outside specimens.

   since their golden age, from the 1940's throughout the 1970's, the popularity and quality of cultivated strains of livebearers have declined both in the general hobby and commercial trade. Nowadays, quality strains of cultivated (aka: fancies) livebearers have become the orphans of the livebearer world. 
 
   All specimens pictured here have been bred in this fishroom, unless stated otherwise. All strains and species are kept outdoor all year round.

   Please, note that as a hobbyist, I rarely part with any specimens. When I do, only quality young breeders are made available. 
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  Since its inception in 2008, this outdoor fishroom was set up in a simple yet effective fashion, with a minimal ecological impact in mind. There are neither artificial light, nor water heathers or high-end filtration system. The water supply comes from an artesian well and filtration is powered by an Alita air pump - which provides both mechanical and biological filtration (via sponge filters and filter boxes). Over the years, it has occasionally been challenging, but overall highly sustainable and productive. Sometimes, "more is less".


Strains and species bred as of 04/18/2022:

• Cultivated strains of swordtail:

1 - Hi-fin albino red swordtail
2 - Hi-fin albino pineapple swordtail
3 - Hi-fin albino koi swordtail
4 - Hi-fin tuxedo neon swordtail
5 - Hi-fin red brick swordtail
6 - Hi-fin Berlin swordtail
7 - Hi-fin orange marble swordtail
8 - Hi-fin Hamburg swordtail
9 - Hi-fin "ruby red" swordtail
10 - Hi-fin "red alpha" swordtail
11 - Hi-fin "Arnoldi"/wagtail swordtail
12 - Hi-fin blue swordtail
13 - Low-fin peppermint swordtail

• Cultivated strains of platy variatus:

1 - Hi-fin "rubynose" variatus platy 
2 - Hi-fin "blue parrot" variatus platy 
3 - Hi-fin sunset variatus platy
3 - Hi-fin "Hawaiian" variatus platy 

• Cultivated strains of platy maculatus:

1 - Low-fin "bleeding heart" maculatus platy 
2 - Low-fin albino maculatus platy (red and bleeding-heart) 

• Domesticated wild species:

1 - Poecilia velifera (Campeche)
2 - Limia nigrofasciata (Unknown location) 
3 - Xiphophorus birchmanni (R. Ellermann and Dr. R. Levine)


Latest update: 04/18/2022
Contact:  [email protected]
YouTube channel: Miamiswordtails T
​(2020, 2021 & 2022 videos update)