generaly speaking the swords have a larger body size and a more of a slender look but all in all they are so similar it is rather difficult to tell for the untrained eye.to add to this confusion i must say that there are a huge number of platy swordtail hybrids wich are readily sold as either one, particularly the females ,wich as you know are hard to distinguish in a mixed tank.this leads me to recomend to people that you keep these fish seperate ,even though they occur in nature in the same regions waters, if you want to keep a strain of one or the other.much like endlers live bearers and guppies at first it may seem like a good idea to get a few nice looking hybrids but in the end you are left with alot of not so desireables wich make it back into the hobby and then the diluted strain continues its cycle.once in a while this is good, but on the original subject ,distinguishing the two types of fishes in the same tank may be difficult without a little experience seeing the two fishes side by side a few times.if you can ask the Local Fish Store to destinguish the two before you have the nack for identifying for yourself.i cant speak for all pet stores but i can say that a couple of our local pet store in the near surrounding areas do keep hybrids umong there fishes due to the peoples who choose to cross the two and then sell/return the prodigy that they no longer want/need.
Home 
