Swordtail Advice Please! :)

[Cookie!]

Hi everyone this is my first post so please bare with me!

So our betta died recently from Columnaris tried treating him with advice from a specialist and from searching the web but it seems the infection was too aggressive and sadly we lost him

So, today we decided to get a Swordtail to keep with our Guppies and Dwarf Plecs I have never kept a Swordtail before so am just looking for some tips on keeping them!

Any advice and suggestions are more than welcome, if any further info is required please feel free to ask!

Thanks peeps Glad to be a newbie to the forum

 

[AshleyT]

Welcome
Swardtails are pretty easy fish to look after you should get Afew like 2 female 1 male

 

[Cookie!]

I wasn't sure how many I can get away with in our tank, we have a 60L tank

 

[FishBlast]

They grow to 10 cm or sometimes more, require large tanks, sometimes males fight with the females (and almost always with other males), mine are nippy towards each other sometimes (during feeding time).
Seems the red versions are more aggressive than other types and the ones with black+metallic green/blue scales are more fragile.

If you keep a trio of 2 females 1 male, they will probably make fry once every 1-2 months though they will eat the baby fish.

Male swordtails kept alone seem quite sad. I put my male separate in a tank for only a day and he was just sitting there in a corner. As soon as I put the female in, he started moving around and following her, displaying to her.

 

[Cookie!]

The one we bought is about 5cm long, we were told it wouldn't grow any more than it has and we weren't sure on how many to get to keep the tank balanced.. Ours is white with black botches and has orange fins Although the tank is 60L it's long so they have a lot of swimming space.

If I get a male and female will they not be slightly aggressive in any way? I'm just worried about it disturbing the other fishes in the tank and making anyone unhappy The male did have a partner female at the pet shop (exactly the same markings etc too) but just wanted to get a male to see how he went, getting the female partner would be okay?

Thanks for your help

 

[FishBlast]

The one we bought is about 5cm long, we were told it wouldn't grow any more than it has and we weren't sure on how many to get to keep the tank balanced.. Ours is white with black botches and has orange fins Although the tank is 60L it's long so they have a lot of swimming space.

If I get a male and female will they not be slightly aggressive in any way? I'm just worried about it disturbing the other fishes in the tank and making anyone unhappy The male did have a partner female at the pet shop (exactly the same markings etc too) but just wanted to get a male to see how he went, getting the female partner would be okay?

Thanks for your help

I've only read that the wag tail variations grow to about 5 cm and all others to 10 or even 13 cm (and some reported even bigger). I also read that you'd need a 200L tank to keep 4 of these but I don't know who to trust on this one. All of mine never grew any bigger than 8 cm but I only had them for 2-3 years. Now I have 2 small ones that are maybe 4 cm but they should grow bigger, I saw some blood reds of 10+ cm at the shop. The females were pretty huge.

It's recommended that you have at least 2 females with that male, else the male will chase the only female all day and not let her feed. Strangely in my case it's the other way around: When the male gets on the lady's nerves, she turns around and dashes at him. He then hides behind the plant or filter. Sometimes I wonder if that red one really is a female or just a male in disguise or a female going alpha. She seems pregnant but I have yet to get fry from her.

Another problem I've noticed with the trios of 2 females 1 male: One of the female became competitive and tried to stop the other from feeding. She scared her to the point of not eating even when I separated that one, which died due to not eating for about a week and probably too much stress.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

The one we bought is about 5cm long, we were told it wouldn't grow any more than it has and we weren't sure on how many to get to keep the tank balanced.. Ours is white with black botches and has orange fins Although the tank is 60L it's long so they have a lot of swimming space.

If I get a male and female will they not be slightly aggressive in any way? I'm just worried about it disturbing the other fishes in the tank and making anyone unhappy The male did have a partner female at the pet shop (exactly the same markings etc too) but just wanted to get a male to see how he went, getting the female partner would be okay?

Thanks for your help

You have been told a "load of cobblers"

Swordtails (X. helleri) need a 4-foot tank long term, they should reach ~12cm excluding their "sword" or any of their tail fin. Very boisterous, especially male-male aggression, submissive fish need space to escape the dominant ones.

Xiphophorus pygmaeus (Pygmy Swordtail) are far better suited to a 60l, but they are far harder to source and need carefully selected tankmates as they are very peaceful fish.

 

[Cookie!]

I went back to the shop and bought our males' partner He seems MUCH happier now and they've both been swimming around and playing in the bubble wall, dropped in a couple of flakes to see how they'd be at feeding time and they were both perfectly fine They went for the same flake at one point but the female got it without a scrap They seem pretty inseparable so I think I'm going to see how they go for now before adding another female. The swords seem very happy with the space they have right now, they've both been dipping into the cave and hanging around there quite a lot (my partner has just named it the passion palace.. sigh) I'm not fully sure which type of swords they are, but if I added a picture would anyone be able to identify?

We've also decided to rehome our Guppies, and are now looking for a bit of a bigger fish, I'm kind of sick of tiny small fishies now (neons, cardinals, guppies etc.) .. So can anyone suggest suitable fishies to replace the Guppies?

I saw some black widow tetras and fell in love with them, will they be okay? If so how many would be suitable?

Any suggestions etc welcome

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Your tank may be small for swordtails, but have your considered platys? look very similar and tend to be smaller

 

[Cookie!]

We're planning on getting a much bigger tank asap, my partner is starting to get into fishkeeping (finally!) and is now thinking of doing a big upgrade tank-wise size shouldn't be a problem soon!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I hope this big tank upgrade becomes a reality for the fishes' sake, multiple Swordtails in a 60l will end in tears, if we had a pound for everytime someone on hear told us they were doing a tank upgrade after being told they had fish too big fot their current tank...

Things hapen in life, that plan of a bigger tank gets put on the back burner for all sorts of reasons, the fish suffer as a consequence (stunted growth, stress-related illness through relentless aggression, deaths etc.).

Never buy a fish that you know (having researched, not just taken LFS word as gospel) you have not got a suitable long term tank for already, or have placed a deposit on.

 

[Cookie!]

We've been researching, buying and then mostly taking back fish so many times I've actually lost count and track of what we've had.. Even though we research before we buy some just don't mix together, and my partner gets convinced by staff at the stores to buy (he's been banned from buying fish without me now ) .. So we're sticking with the swordtails and working around them to make it easier for the fish and ourselves.

Please don't judge others by other peoples actions I am an animal lover and have studied animal management, I personally would never do anything to make the animals uncomfortable, hence I'm seeking advice Tropical fish are a new adventure for me, I've mainly cared for reptiles, cats, dogs and horses. We are looking for tanks but the ones I've seen so far are mainly tall as opposed to long and I would rather have more swimming space length wise than height wise.

 

[Sailfin Zach]

I wasn't sure how many I can get away with in our tank, we have a 60L tank

i think there to big because they grow 4-5 inches there much bigger then mollies

 

[Cookie!]

We went tank-window-shopping today.. We have a bit of an oddly spaced shape available for a much bigger tank so are now looking to get a custom made one (our local shop makes them), we saw a couple of 250L tanks too so we're having a look around for more space

 

[OldMan47]

Zach, we never count the length of a tail in standard length. A swordtail will seldom exceed 3 inches SL. Something to be aware of with swordtails is that they are very fast and are prone to jumping. Be sure the tank has a good cover.