The southern platyfish, common platy, or moonfish (''Xiphophorus maculatus'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine conditions in many ways, especially the difference in levels of s ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Poeciliidae The Poeciliidae are a family of freshwater fishes of the order Cyprinodontiformes, the tooth-carps, and include well-known live-bearing aquarium fish, such as the guppy, molly, platy, and swordtail. The original distribution of the family wa ...

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

Cyprinodontiformes Cyprinodontiformes is an order of ray-finned fish, comprising mostly small, freshwater fish. Many popular aquarium fish, such as killifish and live-bearers, are included. They are closely related to the Atheriniformes and are occasionally in ...

. A live-bearer, it is closely related to the

green swordtail The green swordtail (''Xiphophorus hellerii'') is a species of freshwater/brackish fish in family (biology), family Poeciliidae of order (biology), order Cyprinodontiformes. A live-bearing aquarium fish, live-bearer, it is closely related to the s ...

(''X. hellerii'') and can interbreed with it. It is native to an area of

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''no ...

and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

stretching from

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

, to northern

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wa ...

. The southern platyfish grows to a maximum overall length of .

Sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most an ...

is slight, the male's

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as s ...

being more pointed. The anal fin of the male fish has evolved into a gonopodium, a stick-shaped organ used for reproduction. The female southern platyfish's anal fin is fan shaped. Wild varieties are drab in coloration, lacking the distinctive dark lateral line common to many ''Xiphophorus'' species. ''X. maculatus'' prefers slow-moving waters of canals, ditches, and warm springs. Omnivorous, its diet includes both plants and small

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s, and

annelid The annelids (Annelida , from Latin ', "little ring"), also known as the segmented worms, are a large phylum, with over 22,000 extant species including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches. The species exist in and have adapted to various ecol ...

worms. Breeders have developed a multitude of color varieties (e.g. orange, red, yellow, red/black, and black/white) which are common aquarium fish for hobbyists. The southern platyfish is commonly known simply as the platy (pl. platys or platies), from the fish's original

generic Generic or generics may refer to: In business * Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark * Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...

name, ''Platypoecilus''.

Nonindigenous occurrences

This species has been recorded from Orange County, California, near Westminster; near a fish farm in

Conejos County Conejos County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,461. The county seat is the unincorporated community of Conejos. Being 50.7% Hispanic in 2020, Conejos was Colorado's largest ...

and the

South Platte The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/ Mountain West ...

drainage, Colorado; several counties in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

;

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

; an unnamed tributary to Big Branch Bayou in Lacombe, Louisiana; Beaverhead Rock Pond (Madison County), Montana; Clark County, Nevada; and Texas. It has also been collected in the Loiza drainage near Loiza Reservoir, Quebrada Honda, and Rio Abajo Forest Station north of Utuado in Puerto Rico. The southern platyfish has been released probably due to fish farm or aquarium releases. Specimens in Louisiana were collected near a tropical fish farm. Southern platies, and other introduced poeciliids, have been implicated in the decline of native damselflies on Oahu, Hawaii. Often the distributions of the damselflies and introduced fishes were found to be mutually exclusive, probably resulting from competition for limited insect food.

In the aquarium

Platies are easy to keep and well suited to a community aquarium. They prefer water with a 7.0–8.0 pH, a water hardness of 9.0–19.0

dGH Degrees of general hardness (dGH or °GH) is a unit of water hardness, specifically of general hardness. General hardness is a measure of the concentration of divalent metal ions such as calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) per volume of water. S ...

, and a temperature range of . In captivity, they reach maturity in three to four months, and breed readily, the females giving birth to about 20–40 young at a time. Often young are eaten by the adults or other inhabitants of a communal aquarium but given plants and gravel to hide in, some will probably survive as these are hardy fish. Platy young are first seen at approx 7mm long and will use cover to hide from predators and to look for food. Specialist fry food is available but any flake food, frozen or live food that floats their way will be easily consumed. These require excellent water quality and care must be taken to avoid fry being sucked up into a gravel cleaning syphon. A thin membrane covering the syphon opening such as a clean pair of tights will minimise this. The fish commonly sold in pet shops is not a pure strain of ''X. maculatus'', but is a hybrid between ''X. hellerii'' and ''X. maculatus''. In general, if the male has a sword-shaped tail, they are called swordtails. Otherwise, they are labeled platy. Color and fin shape vary wildly in the aquarium trade. A common statement in the trade is that it is harder to stop them breeding than to make them do so, with ‘surprise’ fry appearing in community tanks regularly.

Genetics

The

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ...

of ''Xiphophorus maculatus'' was sequenced in 2013.

Gallery

File:Xiphophorus maculatus young.jpg, Fry File:Pregnant x. maculatus.jpg, Pregnant female File:PlatyGonopodium.jpg, Male platy with gonopodium File:Twin Bar Platy Female.jpg, Female ‘Twin Bar’ or ‘Comet’ platy File:Platy 009.jpg, ‘Sunset’ platy File:Poissons 06.jpg, Wagtail platy File:Platy blu.jpg, Blue platy File:18 marca 06 r. 015.jpg, ‘Hi-fin’ wagtail File:Xiphophorus_maculatus.jpg, Red ‘Salt and Pepper’ platy File:Black Platy.jpg, Female black platy

References

* *
Southern Platyfish United States Geological Survey
factsheet">United States Geological Survey">Southern Platyfish United States Geological Survey
factsheet

External links

*View th
platyfish genome
in Ensembl {{DEFAULTSORT:platyfish, southern Xiphophorus, southern platyfish Live-bearing fish Ovoviviparous fish Fish of Guatemala Freshwater fish of Mexico Fish described in 1866, southern platyfish

southern platyfish The southern platyfish, common platy, or moonfish (''Xiphophorus maculatus'') is a species of freshwater fish in family Poeciliidae of order Cyprinodontiformes. A live-bearer, it is closely related to the green swordtail (''X. hellerii'') and ...