Platy

🌍 Overview

The platy is a small, exceptionally hardy livebearer native to the Atlantic-slope river systems of Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. Two closely related species are sold interchangeably as 'platy' in the aquarium trade, the southern platy (Xiphophorus maculatus) and the variatus platy (X. variatus), and decades of selective breeding plus repeated hybridization between the two, and even with the swordtail, have produced an enormous range of colors and patterns, from Mickey Mouse and wagtail platies to calico, tuxedo, and bumblebee varieties. Wild platies are actually a fairly drab olive-brown; virtually all of that color range is the product of generations of captive breeding. Like its guppy and molly relatives in the livebearer family Poeciliidae, the platy breeds prolifically and needs little encouragement to produce a steady stream of fry.

📋 Quick Facts

📜 History

The platy has a second career with nothing to do with ornamental color. Between 1928 and 1931, working independently, Haussler, Kosswig and Myron Gordon each found that crossing a platy with a swordtail and then backcrossing the hybrids produced offspring that developed malignant melanoma, about a quarter of the backcross fish in the classic scheme. That cross, now known as the Gordon-Kosswig cross, became one of the oldest animal systems for cancer research still in use. In 1989 Wittbrodt and colleagues traced the tumors to Xmrk, a mutated and duplicated copy of the epidermal growth factor receptor gene.

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🤩 Fun Facts