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| NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species |
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Common Name: green swordtail
Synonyms and Other Names: red swordtail, swordtail.
Taxonomy: available through 
Identification: Distinguishing characteristics were given by Rosen (1960, 1979) and Page and Burr (1991). This species is included in keys of Rosen (1960, 1979), Brown (1971), Minckley (1973), and Greenfield and Thomerson (1997). Photographs or illustrations appeared in Rosen (1979), Mills and Vevers (1982), Axelrod et al. (1985), Petrovicky (1988), Dawes (1991), Sakurai et al. (1993), and Wischnath (1993). Original spelling ends with ii (Nelson et al. 2004).
Size: Females up to 16 cm; males up
Native Range:
Middle America from Rio Nautla, Veracruz, Mexico, to northwestern Honduras (Rosen 1960, 1979; Page and Burr 1991; Greenfield and Thomerson 1997).
Nonindigenous Occurrences: This species has been recorded from Rock Spring in Maricopa County, Arizona (Minckley 1973); several counties in California (Coots 1956; St. Amant and Hoover 1969; St. Amant 1970; Mearns 1975; Courtenay et al. 1984, 1986, 1991; Swift et al. 1993; Dill and Cordone 1997); Conejos and Sagauche counties in Colorado (Woodling 1985, Zuckerman and Behnke 1986; S. Platania, personal communication); several counties in Florida (Courtenay et al. 1974; Courtenay and Hensley 1979a; Dial and Wainright 1983; museum specimens); Hawaii (Brock 1960; Maciolek 1984; Devick 1991b; Mundy 2005); several geothermal waters in Idaho (Courtenay 1985; Courtenay et al. 1987; Idaho Fish and Game 1996); St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana (K. Piller, pers. comm.); Madison County, Montana (Brown 1971; Courtenay 1985; Courtenay and Meffe 1989; Holton 1990); Indian Spring and Rogers Spring, Clark County, Nevada (La Rivers 1962; Deacon et al. 1964; Minckley 1973; Courtenay and Deacon 1982; Deacon and Williams 1984; Vinyard 2001); the Verdigris River near Catoosa, Oklahoma (Pigg et al. 1996); Bexar County, Texas (Howells 1992a); and Teton County, Wyoming (Courtenay et al. 1987; Hubert 1994; Stone 1995; Tilmant 1999). Also collected in Quebrada Honda and the Arecibo drainage near Utuado, Puerto Rico (Erdsman 1984; Lee et al 1983).
Means of Introduction: Most introductions probably due to aquarium releases. Its origin in the Westminster flood control channel in California was believed to be a goldfish farm (St. Amant and Hoover 1969). Florida records may also be due to fish farm escapes or releases.
Status: It is locally established, or possibly established locally, in Colorado (Zuckerman and Behnke 1986), Florida (Nico, personal communication), Hawaii (Devick 1991b), Idaho (?) (Courtenay and Meffe 1989), Montana (Courtenay and Meffe 1989), Nevada (Courtenay and Meffe 1989), Texas (Howells 1992a), and Wyoming (Stone 1995). A breeding population existed in Arizona at Rock Spring, but it disappeared after a flood in 1965 (Minckley 1973). It has been reported from several sites in California (Dill and Cordone 1997) and a single locality in Oklahoma (Pigg et al. 1996).
Impact of Introduction:
Largely unknown. The green swordtail has been implicated in the decline of the Utah sucker Catostomus ardens in a thermal spring in Wyoming (Courtenay et al. 1988).
Green swordtails, and other introduced poeciliids, have been implicated in the decline of native damselflies on Oahu, Hawaii. Often the distributions of the damselflies and introduced fishes were found to be mutually exclusive, probably resulting from predation of the fish on the insects (Englund 1999).
Remarks:
This species exhibits a wide natural range of body form and color patterns (Rosen 1960, 1979; Dawes 1991; Wischnath 1993). It has long been popular as an ornamental fish. The green swordtail was recorded from Indian Spring, Clark County, Nevada, as early as 1975 (Courtenay and Deacon 1982). However, the Xiphophorus taken from Indian Spring during later collections were identified as hybrids of X. hellerii x X. maculatus (Courtenay and Deacon 1982; Deacon and Williams 1984; Page and Burr 1991). That conclusion apparently was based on the fact that the live fish were yellow to pale orange (Courtenay and Deacon 1982). In 1989, Rauchenberger (personal communication) examined the preserved voucher material (UF 91919) and determined that all specimens were X. hellerii. Nevertheless, some of the other above records actually may represent hybrids rather than pure X. hellerii. Myers (1940) mentioned an unconfirmed report of X. hellerii breeding in the Florida Everglades.
This species is proven through experimentation to be an alternative host to the native mussel glochidia of Lampsilis cardium and Utterbackia imbecillis (Watters and O'Dee 1998).
Voucher specimens: Colorado (MSB, uncataloged); Florida (USNM 89437; UF 30867, 86323, 91920, 92139, 97844, 98928), Hawaii (BPBM 35798), Nevada (UF 91919), Oklahoma (OSU 27459).
Axelrod, H. R., W. E. Burgess, N. Pronek, and J. G. Walls. 1985. Dr. Axelrod's atlas of freshwater aquarium fishes. Tropical Fish Hobbyist Publications, Inc., Neptune City, NJ.
Brock, V. E. 1960. The introduction of aquatic animals into Hawaiian waters. Internationale Revue der gesamten Hydrobiologie 45(4):463-480.
Brown, C. J. D. 1971. Fishes of Montana. Montana State University, Bozeman, MT.
Coots, M. 1956. The yellow perch, Perca flavescens (Mitchill), in the Klamath River. California Fish and Game 47(7):219-228.
Courtenay, W. R., Jr. 1985. Florida Atlantic University Quarterly Reports for 1985 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gainesville, FL.
Courtenay, W. R., Jr., and J. E. Deacon. 1982. Status of introduced fishes in certain spring systems in southern Nevada. Great Basin Naturalist 42(3):361-366.
Courtenay, W. R., Jr., and D. A. Hensley. 1979a. Survey of introduced non-native fishes. Phase I Report. Introduced exotic fishes in North America: status 1979. Report Submitted to National Fishery Research Laboratory, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gainesville, FL.
Courtenay, W. R., Jr., and G. K. Meffe. 1989. Small fishes in strange places: a review of introduced poeciliids. Pages 319-331 in G. K. Meffe, and F. F. Snelson, Jr., editors. Ecology and evolution of livebearing fishes (Poeciliidae). Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Courtenay, W. R., Jr., D. A. Hensley, J. N. Taylor, and J. A. McCann. 1986. Distribution of exotic fishes in North America. Pages 675-698 in C. H. Hocutt, and E. O. Wiley, editors. The zoogeography of North American freshwater fishes. John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.
Courtenay, W. R., Jr., C. R. Robins, R. M. Bailey, and J. E. Deacon. 1988. Records of exotic fishes from Idaho and Wyoming. Great Basin Naturalist 47(4):523-526.
Courtenay, W. R., Jr., H. F. Sahlman, W. W. Miley, II, and D. J. Herrema. 1974. Exotic fishes in fresh and brackish waters of Florida. Biological Conservation 6(4):292-302.
Deacon, J. E., and J. E. Williams. 1984. Annotated list of the fishes of Nevada. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 97(1):103-118.
Deacon, J. E., C. Hubbs, and B. J. Zahuranec. 1964. Some effects of introduced fishes on the native fish fauna of southern Nevada. Copeia 1964(2):384-388.
Devick, W. S. 1991b. Patterns of introductions of aquatic organisms to Hawaiian freshwater habitats. Pages 189-213 in new directions in research, management and conservation of Hawaiian freshwater stream ecosystems. Proceedings of the 1990 symposium on freshwater stream biology and fisheries management, Division of Aquatic Resources, Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Dial R. S., and S. C. Wainright. 1983a. New distributional records for non-native fishes in Florida. Florida Scientist 46(1):1-8.
Dial, R. S., and S. C. Wainright. 1983b. New distributional records for non-native fishes in Florida. Florida Scientist 46(1):8-15.
Englund, R.A. 1999. The impacts of introduced poeciliid fish and Odonata on the endemic Megalagrion (Odonata) damselflies of Oahu Island, Hawaii. Journal of Insect Conservation 3:225-243.
Erdsman, D.S. 1984. Exotic fishes in
Holton, G. D. 1990. A field guide to Montana fishes. Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Helena, MT. 104 pp.
Howells, R. G. 1992a. Annotated list of introduced non-native fishes, mollusks, crustaceans and aquatic plants in Texas waters. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Management Data Series 78, Austin, TX. 19 pp.
Hubert, W. 1994. Exotic fish. Pages 158-174 in T. L. Parrish, and S. H. Anderson, editors. Exotic species manual. Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Laramie, WY.
Idaho Fish and Game. 1990. Fisheries Management Plan 1991-1995. Appendix I ? A list of Idaho fishes and their distribution by drainage. Idaho Fish and Game.
La Rivers, I. 1962. Fishes and fisheries of Nevada. Nevada State Print Office, Carson City, NV.
Maciolek, J. A. 1984. Exotic fishes in Hawaii and other islands of Oceania. Pages 131-161 in W. R. Courtenay, Jr., and J. R. Stauffer, Jr., editors. Distribution, biology, and management of exotic fishes. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
Mearns, A. J. 1975. Poeciliopsis gracilis (Hackel), a newly introduced poeciliid fish in California. California Fish and Game 61(4):251-253.
Minckley, W. L. 1973. Fishes of Arizona. Arizona Fish and Game Department. Sims Printing Company, Inc., Phoenix, AZ.
Moyle, P. B. 1976a. Inland fishes of California. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Myers, G. S. 1940. An American cyprinodont fish, Jordanella floridae, reported from Borneo, with notes on the possible widespread introduction of foreign aquarium fishes. Copeia 1940:267-268.
Nelson, J. S., E. J. Crossman, H. Espinosa-Perez, L. T. Findley, C. R. Gilbert, R. N. Lea and J. D. Williams. 2004. Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from the United States, Canada and Mexico, Sixth Edition. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 29. Bethesda, MD.
Page, L. M., and B. M. Burr. 1991. A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. The Peterson Field Guide Series, volume 42. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.
Petrovicky, I. 1988. Aquarium fish of the world. Hamlyn, London, England.
Piller, K. - Southeastern Louisiana University.
Platania, S. - University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
Rosen, D. E. 1960. Middle-American Poeciliid fishes of the genus Xiphophorus. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum Biological Sciences 5(4):57-242.
Sakurai, A., Y. Sakamoto, and F. Mori. 1993. Aquarium fish of the world: the comprehensive guide to 650 species. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA.
St. Amant, J. A. 1970. Addition of Hart's rivulus, Rivulus harti (Boulenger), to the California fauna. California Fish and Game 56(2):138.
St. Amant, J. A., and F. G. Hoover. 1969. Addition of Misgurnus anguillicaudatus (Cantor) to the California fauna. California Fish and Game 57(2):330-331.
Swift, C. C., T. R. Haglund, M. Ruiz, and R. N. Fisher. 1993. The status and distribution of the freshwater fishes of southern California. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Science 92(3):101-167.
Tilmant, J.T. 1999. Management of nonindigenous aquatic fish in the U.S. National Park System. National Park Service. 50 pp.
Watters, T.G. and S.H. O'Dee. 1998. Metamorphosis of freshwater mussel glochidia (Bivalvia: Unionidae) on amphibians and exotic fishes. Am. Midl. Nat. 139: 49-57.
Williams, J. D., D. P. Jennings, and D. C. Haney. 1992. Exotics in the Indian River Lagoon System. National Biological Survey, Gainesville, FL. Unpublished manuscript.
Woodling, J. 1985. Colorado's little fish: a guide to the minnows and other lesser known fishes in the state of Colorado. Colorado Division of Wildlife, Denver, CO. 77 pp.
Zuckerman, L. D., and R. J. Behnke. 1986. Introduced fishes in the San Luis Valley, Colorado. Pages 435-452 in R. H. Stroud, editor. Fish culture in fisheries management. Proceedings of a symposium on the role of fish culture in fisheries management at Lake Ozark, MO, March 31-April 3, 1985. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD.
Other Resources:
Gulf of Mexico Program
FishBase Fact Sheet
Author: Leo Nico and Pam Fuller
Revision Date: 10/8/2008 Citation for this information:
Leo Nico and Pam Fuller. 2009. Xiphophorus hellerii. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.
<http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=869> Revision Date: 10/8/2008
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