VIDEO – Wild-type Variatus Platies, In Situ, But Where?
11 Nov, 2022
Every once in a while AMAZONAS staff stumbles across a video that stops us in our tracks. This week, for me, it’s 5 minutes of in-situ, underwater footage showing the male polymorphism of Xiphophorus variatus, with dominant males sporting either yellow or red tails. These wild-type Variatus Platies or “Platyfish” are remarkable & highly attractive.
A mysterious locale…
However, It’s unclear whether this footage, at a location called “SKHC”, documents a native population located in the Americas, or a feral/introduced population in Hong Kong, as some of the comments suggest.
The video was uploaded back in 2010 by Xiphophorus.net, which sadly appears to no longer exist. Thanks to the amazing project of the Wayback Machine (a.k.a. Archive.org), nothing on the Internet is usually lost. So, you can still head over and sift the archives of Xiphophrus.net over there! (and maybe kick in some financial support for Archive.org if you appreciate what they do!) Of note, I did manage to uncover this beautiful image of these fish that had been preserved in the Archive.
Sadly I couldn’t find any more info on the “location” of “SKHC” even when I managed to dig into the source. Meanwhile, the Internet thinks SKHC is somewhere in Colombia…
There may be clues…
If you pay close attention, you’ll catch glimpses of other fish species in this video. The male Swordtail is rather obvious, but the others are blurry at best.
Perhaps you’re the AMAZONAS reader who can help us unravel this mysterious location with definitive certainty? Think you can help? Check out these screen captures, watch the video, and share your thoughts!
WATCH Xiphophorus variatus ‘SKHC’ 2010, NOW!
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About the author
Matt Pedersen
Matt Pedersen is a Sr. Editor and Associate Publisher with Reef To Rainforest Media, LLC & CORAL Magazines, and is a Sr. Editor and Publishing Partner with Aquatic Media Press, LLC & AMAZONAS Magazine. Matt has kept aquariums for 38 years, has worked in most facets of the aquarium trade, is an active aquarist and fish breeder (both marine and freshwater), and was recognized with the 2009 MASNA Award as the MASNA Aquarist of the Year.
4 Comments
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November 12, 2022
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3zgX-HbK0Vs
I found this youtube video, what looks like someone has the SKHC in their home aquarium.
Hope this is helpful. I would love to have these swimming around in my aquarium. -
November 13, 2022
This platyfish pictured at the bottom looks very similar to x. Variatus ‘La Minzita’.
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November 14, 2022
The black-striped fish doesn’t match any Mexican species, while the barb and goby strongly support an Asian locale for the video footage. Wherever they are located, the platies are obviously doing very well for themselves.
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December 04, 2022
I think this is very likely to be in Hong Kong, or at least in southern china. The black striped fish is indeed a cyprinid, which is likely to be a juvenile parazacco spilurus.The barb seems likely to be the wild form of the gold barb and I don’t know what the goby maybe(it is unclear)
