{"id":864,"date":"2019-06-20T15:32:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T15:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/?p=864"},"modified":"2022-05-08T12:37:33","modified_gmt":"2022-05-08T12:37:33","slug":"xiphophorus-montezumae-jordan-and-snyder-1900","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/2019\/06\/20\/xiphophorus-montezumae-jordan-and-snyder-1900\/","title":{"rendered":"Xiphophorus montezumae (Jordan and Snyder 1900)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Etymology:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xiphophorus:<\/em> Greek,\nxiphos = sword + Greek, pherein = to carry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montezumae<\/em> Named after Montezuma the monarch of the Aztecs in the Aztec Triple\nAlliance <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First\ndescription:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jordan and Snyder, 1900<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notes on a collection of fishes from the\nrivers of Mexico, with description of twenty new species”. Bulletin\nof the U.S. Fish Commission<\/em>. v. 19, pp. 115-147<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xiphophorus montezumae<\/em> <\/em>is one of nine\nnorthern swordtails and belongs to the Montezumae clade consisting of X. montezumae, X.\nnezahualcoyotl, X. continens<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Type\nLocality:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rio Verde [Rio Gallinas] near Rascon, San\nLuis Potosi, Mexico<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: – Rio Gallinas is also known as Rio\nFrio<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distribution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Northeastern Mexico, Tamaulipas, Northern\nVeracruz and San Luis Potosi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Populations:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rio Gallinas system                                        Tamasopo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rascon – includes\nEl Quince and Rio ojo Frio <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arroyo La Cienega                                          Ojo Caliente<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arroyo\nCienega Grande                                 Capuchin                     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Habitat:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally found in streams with strong\ncurrents over substrates of sand, gravel or rocks (Very rarely over mud or\nclay) with usually sparse or no vegetation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Size:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Male 6cm female 7cm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distinguishing\ncharacteristics:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Large slender swordtail, The Capuchin\nstrain of montezumae sword is the largest of the northern swordtails reaching a\nbody length in excess of 75mm, the sword of the montezumae is generally \u00be to 1\n\u00bd times its body length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colour\/Pattern\nVariability:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fish from the Rio Gallinas system can\ndevelop irregular black spots on their flanks that can extend onto the dorsal\nfin. These black spots \/ patterns are absent in the other populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Males from populations other than that in\nthe Rio Gallinas (Rio Frio) have distinctive dorsal fin patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few\nmales of all the populations develop a deep bronze to red coloration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamasopo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Males have a bluish sheen to the body and\ncan develop irregular black spots that form into patterns on the flanks which\ncan extend into the dorsal fin. The tail fin possibly has a variable caudal\nblotch pattern and has a yellow sword with black edging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rascon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Males have a bluish sheen to the body and\ncan develop irregular black spots that form into patterns on the flanks which\ncan extend into the dorsal fin. The tail fin has a yellow sword with black\nedging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ojo Caliente.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Males have a bluish sheen to the body with\nvertical stripes. The dorsal fin is light blue.\nA pale yellow tail fin sporting a pale blue sword edged with black.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capuchin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Males have\na blue\/green sheen to the body with a pale yellow\ntail fin sporting a pale blue sword edged with black. The dorsal fin is yellow\nand has two rows of black spots, a row along the base and a more irregular row\nthrough the center as well as other random spots.\nNo development of block spots on the flanks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behaviour:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A peaceful active species<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Husbandry:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can be kept in a biotope aquarium with a\ngravel and rock base using a power filter to provide the current or a planted\ncommunity aquarium for similar sized fish<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X. montezumae is found at higher elevations\nthan X. nezahaulcoyotl and therefore require a slightly lower temperature,\nDerek Lambert recommended 24 degrees<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breeding:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If well fed and maintained in an aquarium\nwith plenty of hiding places, this species can be flock-bred, however it is\nrecommended to remove the female to a heavily planted spawning tank about a\nweek before birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broods are produced on a monthly cycle with\nfry numbers of 25 on average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remarks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early collections X. nezahualcoyotl<\/em> was often\nmisidentified as X. montezumae <\/em>and it\nis believed that all early work and analysis on X. montezumae<\/em> was in fact carried out on X. nezahualcoyotl.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The profile for Xiphophorus montezumae <\/em>includes the collection data that we are\nmore familiar with in the UK, they are El Quince or Rio Ojo Frio. El Quince is\na town on the Rio Ojo Frio south of the Nacimiento, (Headwaters or source), I\nhave included these collections as part of the population known as \u2018Rascon\u2019.\nThe initial data for the Rascon population came from the town Damian Corona\nroughly five miles south of El Quince, Damian Corona is several miles north of\nthe town of Rascon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rauchenberger, Kallman & Morizot: <\/strong>Monophyly and Geography of the Rio Panuco Basin\nSwordtails (Genus Xiphophorus) with Descriptions of Four New SpeciesDerek and Pat Lambert:<\/strong> Platies and swordtails\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Etymology: Xiphophorus: Greek, xiphos = sword + Greek, pherein = to carry Montezumae Named after Montezuma the monarch of the Aztecs in the Aztec Triple Alliance First description: Jordan and Snyder, 1900 Notes on a...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864\/revisions\/865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}