swordtails in a community

[scottsbt1690]

can anyone tell me if they have any experience of aggresive swordtails, in a community tank?, i have 2 males and a female and have losted a few fish in the past few weeks to attacks by the swordtails, some of the dead fish are fairly hardy fish like RTB shark, indian gourami etc, any advice would be tops

scott

 

[ferrikins]

It's very likely your males are fighting and the over fish are just getting in the way. I would advice you rehome one male or move one to another tank and get some more females.

HTH

 

[Polardbear]

I've never had my swordies attack other types of fish. But 2 males and 1 female isn't a good combination - I'm surprised that both males are still alive if there have been other casulaties. Whenever I've tried 2 males it didn't really matter how many females I had, they would constantly pick on each other until 1 was either totally beaten into submission or dead. I tried someone's suggestion of getting 5 males so that the bickering would get spread around but that didn't work out real well either. The one dominate male just beat up each one in turn. I'm hoping with a 55 gallon tank now that maybe there will be enough "get away" room to keep more than 1 male. What size tank do you have? Are there hiding places the other fish can get to when the Swordies start mixing it up? Regardless, I'd at least get a couple more females.

 

[Sasha]

I agree. Two male swordtails would fight constantly. Get a couple more female swordtails.

 

[ronin]

Do female swordtails fight too? I have one that every now and then will attack the other swords, male or female. Just wondering if this was normal.

 

[Polardbear]

I've had one get a little peckish if she wasn't in the mood for company but never really go after another. I do have one girl that gets very protective of other fish if they aren't feeling well, she'll hover over the sick one and chase off anyone that comes over to bother them, but then she goes right back to hovering over the sick one. She also stands guard over the other females when they are having babies. She's a funny little thing. I usually pull the fry out of my main tank whenever I can find them but there's one elusive little fry from the last batch that I haven't been able to catch and last night I watched Meri for about an hour protecting the little guy from the Swordies who were contemplating having it for a snack.