How To Breed And Genral Info On Swordtails

[winkle]

I am not sure you understand my perspective at all FB. Why would I move the fish in the direction of a female that rejects contact with a male? That somehow seems counterproductive to me. My swordtails are plenty aggressive enough without adding that quality to the mix.

...because these are pet fish? My fish are, first and foremost, PETS. Breeding them comes second as an added, interesting quirk. I'm vaguely aiming for nice orange-finned lyretail black berlin swordtails, but not at the cost of eliminating my favourite pets from the gene pool

These guys are great to keep. I think they are my fav livebearer that I've ever kept. They definately seem to have the most interesting behaviours and colours out of the more common livebearers in my opinion. Pretty easy to breed too!

 

[FishBlast]

I am not sure you understand my perspective at all FB. Why would I move the fish in the direction of a female that rejects contact with a male? That somehow seems counterproductive to me. My swordtails are plenty aggressive enough without adding that quality to the mix.

...because these are pet fish? My fish are, first and foremost, PETS. Breeding them comes second as an added, interesting quirk. I'm vaguely aiming for nice orange-finned lyretail black berlin swordtails, but not at the cost of eliminating my favourite pets from the gene pool

These guys are great to keep. I think they are my fav livebearer that I've ever kept. They definately seem to have the most interesting behaviours and colours out of the more common livebearers in my opinion. Pretty easy to breed too!

Yeah, you've worded that better than me. X)
If I had two aquariums and was dedicated 100% to breeding, I would have separated the fish so that they'd be paired with the kinds I want. But in this case it's more like keeping a colony of cute critters and watching them form a (not quite perfect) family.

 

[OldMan47]

My fish are also pets but I do not want to continue a breeding process where I am producing even more aggressive fish. I prefer my pets a little less aggressive because it lets me keep a better variety.

 

[Bazaman]

ok i have seen a lot of posts here saying that swordtails can be bullies and in some cases kill other fish. in my community tank i have guppies, red platies, 3 types of cories, 2 common plecos, and a small school of harlequin rasboras. I am also going to be getting some zebra loaches, would sword tails be ok in with them or should i put them in one of my other tanks that is empty at the moment?

 

[FishBlast]

My fish are also pets but I do not want to continue a breeding process where I am producing even more aggressive fish. I prefer my pets a little less aggressive because it lets me keep a better variety.

It depends how their roommates behave though. Bee never attacks unprovoked.
If I look at the statistics:
- Diamond (that female that died) used to bully Bee to no end from the first day. Then Bee started bullying her as revenge. Either that swordtail was sick or it died due to being scared of Bee and refusing to eat. She was separated, so it may point to an illness because she still refused to eat.

- Cracker gets on Bee's nerves sometimes with asking to mate. She turns around at him and he runs away and hides. Sometimes she may spit at him or peck him to go away.

- Tzuppy hit her with the tail and she turned around and pecked his tail, chasing him away.

So she doesn't attack unprovoked.
But if almost all blood-reds are aggressive, does that mean that you wouldn't breed that variety at all?

ok i have seen a lot of posts here saying that swordtails can be bullies and in some cases kill other fish. in my community tank i have guppies, red platies, 3 types of cories, 2 common plecos, and a small school of harlequin rasboras. I am also going to be getting some zebra loaches, would sword tails be ok in with them or should i put them in one of my other tanks that is empty at the moment?

I haven't seen her directly kill any fish, she might have been eating a fry or two, the male ate way more / killed way more fry. Male swordtails may kill each other though, in territorial fights.

 

[Bazaman]

i still plan on breeding as many diferent types as i can i just want to know if it is safe to put them with my other fish or give them their own tank(s) i don't want to lose good breeding fish if i can help it. thank you everyone for all the info so far.

 

[FishBlast]

i still plan on breeding as many diferent types as i can i just want to know if it is safe to put them with my other fish or give them their own tank(s) i don't want to lose good breeding fish if i can help it. thank you everyone for all the info so far.

Your guppies may try to breed with swordtail females. Nothing will result of it. Swordtail males might see the guppies as threats but I doubt it.
Your swordtails may try to breed with your platies and they CAN hybridize so you might have swordtail-platy fry if they do that. The hybrids may or may not grow swords and will look like giant platies.

I don't see the other fish posing any problems (plecs, cories).

 

[Bazaman]

ok awesome. now just to wait until i have bought a house and can set up a bigger area for my tanks and set up more tanks too

 

[FishBlast]

ok awesome. now just to wait until i have bought a house and can set up a bigger area for my tanks and set up more tanks too

I really wish my mom would allow me to get an even bigger tank. My table is probably big enough for a 150-200L but only 3ft long...

 

[Bazaman]

i do like having a big community tank, when i get my house i will be keeping a couple of cumminty tanks here and there in the house and i will also have a whole room just for tanks so i can start breeding and selling fish too.

 

[FishBlast]

i do like having a big community tank, when i get my house i will be keeping a couple of cumminty tanks here and there in the house and i will also have a whole room just for tanks so i can start breeding and selling fish too.

I've had a community tank before... not properly set up though so I didn't enjoy it for too long...
Started out with 4 guppies when I was 5, mom killed them by leaving their decoration in soap and then putting it back in the tank... -.- it was a very tiny tank.
Then at the age of 7 I received my first community tank from a friend. The amount of fish I had in there... X_X was surely too much for a mere 40 or 50L whatever it was... And a lot have died along the years, either due to no filtration or due to dad overfeeding when I left him to take care of the fish.

The community included:
Several zebra danios
A bunch of swordtails (probably 5 or 6, with more females than males)
4 bettas (in pairs)
1 giant betta
bunch of guppies
4 baby angelfish
a bunch of neon Tetra
some kind of golden Tetras with a black spot near their tail
one black molly baby
one dark-red wagtail platy
2 hoplos that my dad bought.

After a lot of them died by 2003, I've ended up with 2 hoplos (not the same I started with back in 1997), 1 male swordtail, 2 male guppies - descendants of my first ones, 1 fantail goldfish and a small Crucian carp I've saved from becoming dinner.

Then in 2005, after a few deaths, my setup went like this,in that same 40-50L:
1 Crucian carp, 2 hoplos (same ones from 2002-2003), 2 silver fantail fish, 1 black moor and 2 male swordtails (dad bought the other male when it looked like a female...)

Had them for several years until 2009 when I lost the fantails/moor, both swordtails and the carp. Then in 2010 I lost one of the hoplos.

Now I have 1 of the hoplos from 2003 left, a pair of adult swordtails and 2 swordie fry. But a 76L tank, a filter, a heater, sand and a plant that started to spread. It took me 17 years to find out about cycling a tank. X_X