Something May Be Rong With My Swordtails

[crago1990]

hey, i have a 95L tank with 8 lemon tetras and 6 pepered corrys and like 5 days ago i brought 1 male and 3 female swordtails. all my other fish are fine except my swordtails. they sit in the corner of my tank just laying there. if i go near there tank they swim around and act fine. also they dont seem to be eating they put the food in there mouth put then spit it out again. ive tried bloodworm and flake. is the hiding thing because there new and theres not enough plants maybe for them to feel safe? ive got plants all along the back and thats were they are all the time. but i dont get whats with the not eating?

 

[elisew]

How long has the tank been running and can you post the results of a water test?

It may possibly be a case of them just getting used to their new surroundings but it could also be the water quality. Although you say your other fish are ok, they could be used to the water whereas the swordtails aren`t.

 

[OldMan47]

Hi there Crago.
Do you know the mineral content or the hardness of your water? Swordtails almost can't help thriving in my tap water, but it is water with a TDS, total dissolved solids, of 325 ppm. It also measures over 12 degrees of hardness and of KH. The end result is some quite hard water with a pH over 7.5. For me, the challenge of keeping fish healthy is exactly the fish that give you no trouble at all. They are fish that need low mineral content and a low hardness number. If you have soft, low mineral content water that would suit your cories and tetras, you will have trouble keeping any of the common livebearers happy. Each of us must end up choosing fish tat are best suited to our water. I can provide water for cories, which I love, but it means mixing RO water with my tap water. The stuff coming straight from the tap, would allow cories to survive if I changed it often enough, but there is no way they could ever thrive or reproduce in that water.