02/22/11

The Crowntail Platy

                                                          Written by Rick Graham

      For as long as I can remember, I have had platies in my aquarium.  As a youth, I had platies in my community tank.  Platies were inexpensive, hardy, colorful and available.   But, it wasn’t until the mid 1970’s that I began breeding platies for show competition.  At that time, I bred wagtails, moons, and comets (twin bars).  I concentrated on size, color and shape.  My fish did well in shows, and I won my share of trophies and ribbons.  (Yes they awarded ribbons back then.)

      Sometime in the early 1980’s, I started breeding fancy platies.  I began with hi fins, but it was my plumetails that started my passion for fancy livebearers.  I purchased my first plumetails from Joanne Norton.  I bred her plumetails into my lines of normal finned platies. That created some very beautiful platies. 

      Later in the 1990’s, I added new breeding stock into my lines by purchasing plumetails from Bob Swanson and Tom Chelpka.  This introduction created some interesting variations in my lines of plumetails.  Some of the fish were now getting fuller brush like plumes, while others were getting very long tails prior to the plumes.

      My lines of plumetails were doing great but I needed a new challenge.  So in 2001 I began working on the development of lyretail platies.  While my lyretails eventually achieved mild success, it was not until 2004 that my dream of quality lyretails became reality.  That is when I purchased some of Tom Chelpka’s lyretail platies at a club fish auction.  His fish had better maculatus body shapes than mine. 

      Over the next years, I have created lines of blue peppered lyretail platies, black lyretails, wagtail lyre platies and a few more variation.  While breeding these lyretails, I began to notice that a few fish had growth between the lyretail openings.  This growth was usually slight and at the base of the caudal.  It resembled the beginning of a veil type fin.

      With this in mind, I thought I would try to create a veil platy.  After many crosses with female lyretails and normal fin/gonopodium males (lyretail males can not be used as breeders due to the miss-shape of their gonopodium), I could not produce a veil platy.  So I decided to try something else.  This time I would use female lyretails and male plumetails.  I used males that had very long caudal tails (equal to or longer than the body length) with very wide brush like plumes. This cross eventually created a blending of a lyretail and a wide plume with filaments in between.  This became the beginning of the crowntail platy.  The length of the caudal fin varies, but in all cases it is very long and flowing.  These fish are hardy, fertile females and very beautiful. 

      I am now working on new color lines for my crowntails.  What started as a project for a veil platy, turned out to became something entirely different.  You may be wondering if I ever produced any veil platies.  Well yes I did and I am working to improve them.  Also along the way, I developed the fringetail platy.  These platies have six to ten long filaments spread along the edge of the caudal, but I think I will keep these fish for a future article.

      In closing I can say that the platy fish has given me a lifetime of pleasure and challenges.  While some believe platies are for beginners, I can say they have a lot to offer no matter what level you are at in the hobby.  Give these beautiful fish a try.

The Judgment

A Judges Approach

By Rick Graham

 
It is interesting to see some new members of any aquarium society enter their first monthly bowl show or annual all-species show. The pattern is usually the same; first, they just want to learn. Next, they want to place, followed by winning from time to time, then winning most always. Finally comes the time to second-guess the judge. Now don't get me wrong, second-guessing the judge is healthy. As with all humans, judges do make mistakes and there is usually a rational reason why that judge didn't pick your entry. In this article I will attempt to explain just how a judge may go about selecting show winners and losers.  Let's start with bowl shows and then progress to the all-species show. Before discussing the judging of a bowl show, let's first review the bowl show itself.

What is the purpose of a bowl show? Is it a place to learn how to show fish? Is it a place to see different varieties of fish available of a certain family? Or is it a place to show off your favorite fish? The answer is: it is all these things and more. It can also be very competitive and a very ego inflating experience. No matter how you may try to down play the competitive side of the bowl show, it still exists. Some members are always going to be more competitive than others, just because of their nature. If handled in a constructive (translated as fun, informative and friendly) manner, the competition can be good for the society. However, if egos grow too large and the reasons for becoming interested in the hobby are lost to the glitter and gold, bowl shows can and will cause problems. The first indication that things are getting out of hand is when members become overly irritated by a bowl show judge's selection. Judging a bowl show, if done correctly, is not as easy as it may seem. Let's fantasize a little with a make-believe monthly bowl show. The category is "All Livebearers except Guppies". A total of sixteen fish were entered, six of which are worthy of placing in only three award positions.

The first possible winner is a large, beautifully colored Pineapple Platy with no flaws. The second potential winner is a very large Ameca splendens, a truly impressive entry. The third candidate is a rare Veiltail Molly with a long flowing caudal. The fourth candidate is a huge Anableps. The fifth potential winner is a vividly colored Blood Red Swordtail, which is extremely large. Finally, the last potential winner is an outstanding Hi-fin Plumetail Platy. All six entries were flawless and represented the highest quality of its type. Which would you select? Would you select the less common and very large entries such as the Ameca splendens or Anableps? Or would you select the extremely fancy varieties, such as the Veiltail Molly and the Hi-fin Plumetail Platy? Both of these varieties took a lot more work to develop. Or would you select the very colorful, more common entries such as the Blood Red Swordtail and the Pineapple Platy? After all, such outstandingly colored specimens arc seldom seen. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Should you select the rarer or the fancier? Maybe the larger, no, how about the more colorful. You look hard but can't find a flaw on any of the six finalists. What can you do? The answer may be in the deportment of the fish or the way the exhibitor displays his entry. If the tank has water spots or no background paper, it could decide in what position the entry finishes. If you can't use these methods as a tiebreaker, there is only one other thing to do. That is, choose the one you like best. After all, you are the judge. If you have been consistent and fair, you have no alternative and it is the best way left to go.

Now, let us take a look at the entries in another "make believe" class. This time the class will be in a multi-class (all species) show. At first you may think this will be easier to judge than our bowl show class. After all, those livebearer entries from our bowl show would now be placed in a number of classes instead of one. However, the multi-class show can develop its own judging problems.

Since our example of bowl show entries were so excellent, lets go to the other extreme for our multi-class show. The "make believe" class this time will be Large Cichlids. Now large Cichlids, like all large fish classes, have an element that can cause irritation with the entrant when their fish does not win. This is because a large fish becomes more personal as a pet. In many cases this may be their only entry, and only one of a few fish the hobbyist may have raised. With the intelligence of a large fish comes a closer bond between the fish and the owner. So, the owner of a losing fish can become very upset if his fish doesn't place where he thinks it should.

In our "make believe" example class we have only seven entries. They are a Longfinned Red Oscar , a Black Belt Cichlid , an Aztec Cichlid , a Mozambique Cichlid , a Ringtailed Pike Cichlid , a Texas Cichlid and a Chanchito Cichlid. Each entry has a flaw of one kind or another. As a judge you must select which flawed entry will win or lose, since you can't disqualify the whole class. The Longfinned Red Oscar has good coloration. Now, I personally do not like the frayed fins even though it is common with this variety. Should you or I as a judge reward the entry because it is rare? Or, if you feel this variety needs more genetic work because of the frayed fins, be disqualified? The next entry is a very large Black Belt Cichlid. This entry has very, very permanent scars, probably from battles with tank mates. The Mozambique has a one half inch split in the caudal fin. Since this is a large entry it was probably damaged during the process of catching it and bringing it to the show. The three-fourths grown Ringtailed Pike Cichlid is a worthy entry. Other than the size of the fish it is flawless and had outstanding color. The Texas Cichlid is a large entry but is very underfed and the eyes had a film on them indication the entry was stressed. The Aztec Cichlid is a nice entry however it has numerous pin holes (some large) in between the dorsal rays. It has been my experience that these holes do not heal. The last entry is the Chanchito Cichlid, which has small hole in the lip area. This is common with Cichlids and is often caused by locking lips with other fish during combat or spawning. Small holes can mend, however larger holes can leave dents or scars. Now that you have reviewed each entry, how would you place them?

Since each have a flaw, how do you come to a decision? First, consider if the flaw is temporary or permanent, the entries with a split in the fin, underfed and undersized are possibly all temporary defects. The entry with holes in the lip area may or may not be temporary. The remainder of  the entries have what I would consider permanent defects. Now you can reduce the competition down to three or four entries. How you select the order of the top three positions is up to how you feel about each entry's defect. Many judges would select the younger, smaller entry since it was otherwise flawless. Keep in mind that fish shows are beauty contests. As you can see I am not saying which entry should be first, second or third. The reason for the article is to let you see how a judge may go about judging a class. It is important to know that both of these examples were extremes. Normally a class will have one or two outstanding entries to place first or second plus a few that could be the third place winner.

Another item that can be a factor in judging an all - species show is the fact that not all judges are experts with the types of fish they are judging. While most show committees try to get the best judges for each class, there are many of the odd classes that the judge must pick up because the show committee cannot afford to bring in a judge for one Killifish or Saltwater class. So, the judge does the best he or she can with their limited knowledge in these classes. This is when the judge looks hard for flaws in an entry and uses the flaw as a reason to remove (sometimes referred to as disqualify) the entry from competition.