Swordtail question

[fishcrazy]

Hey all,

Got a question.... I have two female swordtails and one male, and I am wondering if they are as prolific as guppies. My females seem to have a tiny dark area in each of their gravid spots, but they don't seem to be getting any fatter or darker (the spot that is), after several weeks. The male is definitely being a 'male' and eagerly giving the girls his attention, but at this point I am wondering if he is 'shooting blanks'. :p:

I have them in a 55 with 3 cories and several types of tetras and they all seem to get along just fine. I am really wanting some babies out of them and I am wondering if I should move them to a stricly livebearer tank and maybe add some aquarium salt to help them along?

I hesitate to do this in the 55 because I have heard that cories and tetras don't do well at all with any amount of salt in their water.

Thanks in advance for ideas and advice.

[poel_19]

she'll pop give her time
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[fishcrazy]

Wellll, that is what I thought, but I have had the largest one for over 8 months and have only gotten 2 babies out of her......she hasn't gotten any bigger or darker at her gravid spot since. The other one I have had for 3 months and doesn't look like she is anywhere near pregnant either.... hmmmm

[alta678]

Hmmm, could your male be shooting blanks?!? :brandy:

[jacob(i lov guppies)]

I recommend that you try and add a new male to the tank and see if that helps get the females preggo. With another male in the tank it could bring some competition and make the male you already have be more eager to breed too.

[Morability Ranch]

Swords are like Guppies, once hit by a male they store the sperm and are usually pregnant for life, most get hit by a sibling before being seperated. Here is a good article to read about Swortail breeding http://live-tropical-fish.com/tropical_swordfish.aspx

[fishcrazy]

I am suspecting maybe he is all show and no ammunition, alta. :hehe:

I think I am gonna take the advice and get another male to put in with them to see if that doesn't make him more serious. Woo hoo another excuse for more fish! ha ha

Thanks Kym for the website. I have had swords before and have not experienced this issue with them in the past, so I was a bit confused as to why they aren't popping babies out like guppies, like the ones that I had in the past did. Come to think of it, I had several males back then.

I am thinking I am gonna change the arrangement of my little buddies to better suit their needs. Right now I have several varities of tetras, one white cloud, and cories in with my 3 swords in my 55.

I am planning on getting some guppies, so I am gonna set up another tank just for my LBs and keep the other guys separate so I can more closely match everyones preferences water chemistry wise.

I keep reading where guppies and swords as well as mollies like a bit of salt in their water and I have read cories don't do well with that, hence my changing things around... hmmmm might just need another tank! ha ha

[poel_19]

pic of the male? how big is he?

[pam916]

Are you sure the babies are not being eaten? If you don't have lots of cover for them to hide in they may be being eaten as fast as they are born.

[Morability Ranch]

Thanks Kym for the website. I have had swords before and have not experienced this issue with them in the past, so I was a bit confused as to why they aren't popping babies out like guppies, like the ones that I had in the past did. Come to think of it, I had several males back then.


Once they are hit by a male, pregnant and you know they have dropped fry before they will from that point on continue to drop fry using stored up sperm so it does not matter how many males you run with them from that point, you can take all males out and still your females will drop fry for life. I am thinking the fry are getting eaten as soon as they are born like Pam916 said.I have had female guppies deliver a fry and turn around and eat the thing before it had a chance to unfold and swim to safety, I have also had the other fish sit under the delivering females and eat the fry as soon as they come out. You may have 2 female swords that are heavily prone to eating thier fry or a male that sits under them and eats all the fry as they come out. I have some stains of Guppies that are more prone to eating fry and it takes longer to get their numbers up because I lose more fry than I can raise, and then their are some that don't eat their fry at all and I quickly get over run.

[fishcrazy]

Well, I'd tend to agree on the fry-eating theory, if they even looked like they were getting bigger and darker, but they aren't. I look at them at length every day as it is a good source of destressing for me after a long day of working. Maybe that is the case, who knows. I do have lots and lots of plants both real and fake in there, so if they are getting eaten, the adults are really, really good at getting them all! ugh

The larger female, was really large at the point she had the two babies. I had her in a breeder box that time and only two ended up down in the bottom. She has never gotten anywhere near that large since then. The smaller female looks to be pretty young still, but she is just under 2" long. Anyone ever had female drop when they didn't even look anywhere near ready??

Everything everyone has suggested/advised sounds just like what I went through in my own thoughts in trying to solve this mystery, but there are other circumstances that made me discount my theories. I think I am going to go ahead with my strictly LB tank plan since they really like a bit higher PH than my tetras anyway. I notice my tetras have better color if their PH is closer to 6.5 and I don't like keeping the tank that low with LBs in there. If things change and I find out something new, I will be sure and post it here so others can read about it.

Thanks for all the suggestions, you guys ROCK! :D

[Morability Ranch]

I have seen them drop and not look close to being ready, the older the fish is the bigger she will get, feeding also can determine fry batch size which will affect the size your female will get being pregnant. How long have you had these 2 female swords? If the bigger one is old she may just be past her prime and not having babies anymore. I have 2 Spanish Dancer female guppies that are no longer producing that were out of my original stock I started with, they are huge and healthy but just old and past reproductive stage, they still have a gravid spot that is dark and look like they could be pregnant because they are stretched out from the past pregnancies, they are just barren old ladies that have given me many wonderful offspring over the last 3 years and now just hang out with all their daughters ,greats, and great great Gdaughters who have taken their place :) I hope you finally figure out what is going on with your girls, maybe you need to get 2 more girls and a new boy to show them how it is done:hehe:

[Haiven]

Well I'm curious to see if you ever got any swordtail fry. I never had as much luck with swordtails as I did with platys and mollies.

[Little Fish]

Couple of thoughts related to the topic:

I'm skeptical about this "pregnant for the rest of their life" thing. I know that livebearers do store sperm and can have several batches from one hit. But I do think the sperm can be used up, unless swordtails are somehow different than other livebearers.

I've had an interesting experience with my platys (which are related to swords). I never knew when she dropped. I think it may have happened 2 times and I think by the time I saw the babies they were older. I think the babies managed to stay hidden for a long time. I say this because I kept seeing 1 baby across a couple of weeks (now you see him, now you don't) and then sometime later I counted maybe 3, then maybe 5, then 8, all larger than that original one that I kept seeing (which was probably several fish that I got an occasional glass at individually until they all came out of hiding). My tank has lots of hiding places so this isn't really surprising, but it was a totally different experience than I have with my Endlers who don't really bother to hide even though many places are available.

[fishcrazy]

No, no little fins yet. I got another male and he killed my existing one... then my prettiest female who looked like she was about to pop, suddenly died.. arrrrrggghhhhhh :mad:. Don't know why, I tested the water and all my params were really good. So I am down to one male and one female (?) again. She does not even look like she has been around a male. I am suspecting maybe 'she' is really a male that has just not developed his sword yet, but then again, it hasn't developed any of the other usual 'male' parts either... This male who seemed to really have a crush on my deceased female has absolutely nothing to do with the remaining 'female'. sigh.... I have just given up on them and am letting them live out their fishy lives in my tank.

As far as mollies go... I only like the black ones and have not been able to find any good quality ones that won't suddenly develop ick as soon as I get them home.

[Haiven]

As I said before, I had great success with mollies and platies, but only moderate success with swordtails. All the sources say they're easy to raise, but not for me.

Haiven added 3 Minutes and 16 Seconds later...

Fishcrazy, I have a breeding pair and some juvies of some of the most gorgeous mollies you've ever seen and they came from Txbabycat. Their bodies and fins are white, and they have little orange spots. It makes them look cream colored from a distance. Also, they're lyretails!