Parrot Parrot
| Parrot Parrot | ||||||||||||
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Cultivated form, male |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Xiphophorus variatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Meek , 1904) |
The variatus platy ( Xiphophorus variatus , Syn. : Platypoecilus variatus ), also Papageienplaty called, is a freshwater fish of the family of livebearers . The fish are native to the Caribbean side of central Mexico (southern Tamaulipas to northern Veracruz ).
features
The males are up to about 5–6 cm long, the females up to 7 cm long. As with all viviparous toothcarps, the sexes can be differentiated on the basis of the male's gonopodium and the female's black gestation mark. The physique is slimmer than the closely related Platy ( Xiphophorus maculatus ). Their attainable age is 3 years.
There are many brightly colored variants in the coloring, which is what gave the species its name. As a rule, the animals do not color themselves until quite late, until then they are inconspicuous.
When kept together in the aquarium, parrots interbreed with platys, which usually results in yellow, slender, elongated hybrids.
The animals are omnivorous, that is, they are omnivores and, in addition to vegetable food such as algae (very important), also eat water fleas and mosquito larvae as live food, and in captivity, under certain conditions, also flake food.
literature
- Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .
- Hans A. Baensch , Rüdiger Riehl : Aquariums Atlas. Volume 1, Mergus Verlag, Melle 1997, ISBN 3-88244-101-1 .
- Mauro Mariani: Fish in the Aquarium. Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2005, ISBN 3-7043-2190-7 .
Web links
- Parrot Parrot on Fishbase.org (English)
- www.zierfischverzeichnis.de