Swordtails

[Philbert]

I just read a post elsewhere about putting multiple pair of Swords in a 10 and a 20.
Are Swords appreciably different from other livebearers, specifically Mollies?
My thought was the males in a small tank will fight over territory, the females will be stressed, and any fry will be eaten as soon as they are born.
I've seen Swords get fairly large, although my impression is they don't get quite as big as a Sailfin...but if I put 2 pair of small mature Sailfins in a 20, let alone a 10, there'd be conflict until someone died, most likely the weaker male.
Am I correct in thinking this is almost to the level of a PETA protest? :(

[Zulaab]

Re: Swordtails

Sword tails will breed with your mollies just to let you know :)

[Philbert]

Re: Swordtails

Good to know; I have no plans to add Swordtails to my tanks, but I didn't want to say anything about overcrowding Swords 'til I knew if they were about the same as my livebearers.
Sailfins are a little different from non-Sailfin Mollies, for instance, but I would tell someone not to put 2 breeding pairs in a 10 gallon; and I would not want to misspeak before checking with someone who has kept Swords...I think they would not do well in a small tank, though, for the reasons I gave before.

[guppymax]

Re: Swordtails

I think what you are saying about the males (guppies, mollies, platys or swords ) is true. Its a combination of space and hiding places that mitigates this problem. It seems to me that guppies are much worse about eating the fry than mollies and swords.

max

[Philbert]

Re: Swordtails

My limited experience as well...I had some plastic "fry" grass and some moss in my Guppy tank...I would find 1-3 fry occasionally.
Now that I have floating Hornwort I find 12 or so fry...I have young females, so my spawns aren't large.
Mollies, my mature ones, give me 40+ and I don't seem to lose any.

Someone was talking about a school project which entailed placing "multiple breeding pairs of Swordtails in a 10 and a 20"; I see animal cruelty in that situation. I wanted to say as much, but I wasn't sure if Swords were any different from other livebearers. Doesn't seem like it would be different when it comes to territory and stress.

[edkrueger]

Re: Swordtails

Sword tails will breed with your mollies just to let you know :)

I don't think thats true...
If so its not very common.

[edkrueger]

Re: Swordtails

I keep a 30 gallon cube swordtail tank with 4 pairs in it and there are no problems. However it is heavily planted.

[islander]

Re: Swordtails

Howdy Greg and all,

Some good advice, but what works for one might not work for another and you have to draw on your own experience.  

XGSC it is common practice for them to have pairs of swordtails or platies in 5 gallon tanks with only a clump of java moss and pile of gravel on the bottom to help hide the fry.  I tried that ths summer with 10 gallon tanks outside letting the water get green plus lots of java moss of najis grass with good luck.

If you want a show tank a 30 gallon heavely planted with two males and half a dozen females works well; Greg I will show you next time you are over.  There is lots of places for the fry to hide and I am thinning out the fry all the time.  There is an extra big filter in each of these tanks.

I don't believe swordtails have ever bred with mollies but swordtails will breed with platies and rare cases guppies with mollies.

Swordtails are alot like mollies in that you have the early maturing males that usually stay small.  In the last few years I have had swordtails get over 5" in the 30 gallon tanks, don't rush in breeding them to young if you want them to get big and raise them in a big tank with lots of water changes and don't over stock.  later, ken

[Philbert]

Re: Swordtails

Howdy Greg and all,

Some good advice, but what works for one might not work for another and you have to draw on your own experience.  

XGSC it is common practice for them to have pairs of swordtails or platies in 5 gallon tanks with only a clump of java moss and pile of gravel on the bottom to help hide the fry.  I tried that ths summer with 10 gallon tanks outside letting the water get green plus lots of java moss of najis grass with good luck.

ken

Sorry, do you mean more than one pair per tank, or a pair per 5 gallon? Did you put more than 1 male in your 10 gallon?

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Swordtails

I have kept & bred sword, platties, guppies and a few less common livebearers for years.
Usually species tanks with only a handful of java moss for the fry to hide in.
The males seem to run in packs of 2-4 chaseing a single female  Sometimes there a 2 or 3 packs chasing females - depends on how big the colony is.   I'm not sure if is because the males give up or they got lucky, but for some reason the pack moves on to another female.

When tank space becomes limited as it always does with livebearers I will pair up tanks with 2 speies of diverent colors. ie red swords and yellow wag platties or marigold platies with red tux swords.  I have never seen the males chaseing the wrong females or found any crossbread fry.  Although I have herd stories of swords and platties crossing,   I can only assume it was done with a lot of efort by the owner.

[islander]

Re: Swordtails

Good morning,

http://www.xiphophorus.org/  In some tanks there were trios or just all males or females in the 5 gallon tanks or larger.  They had no filter system in these tanks or heaters, I guess they did a lot of water changes.  

LOL, Bob last year I thought the much smaller platy plumetail males would not breed with the 5" pineapple swordtail hifin females but several of the swords soon had twin sword fry with hifins.  I will admit it was a real nice suprise because the twin sword hifin hybrids are really cool.  Later, ken

[Mzungu]

Re: Swordtails

I've had mixed experiences with swords. Some males I've seen are quite aggressive toward other males, while the ones I had recently never had a problem with each other. I had 2 males and a female (along with other fish) in a 29, rescued them just after they were born from a small tank full of adults when I worked at an LFS... I have 1 surviving male and 2 surviving females right now, and lots o' babies. So no, I don't necessarily think it's cruel to put multiple pairs of swords in a tank together, provided it's big enough and has enough distractions (plants, etc.). But, I have noticed aggression in small, bare tanks.

And I agree, I have heard about platies and swords being crossbred, but not mollies.

[roberte]

Re: Swordtails

xxx

[Zulaab]

Re: Swordtails

Sorry I must have been thinking Platties and wrote down Molly's... its been a long time since I used to have them when I was a kid but back then I had a tank where the female sword died, but weeks later one of the (I thought Molly's, but more reasonable Platties) had babies which on some of the males grew swords.   This was prolly 30 yrs ago I kept them when I was living in Denmark.

[Philbert]

Re: Swordtails

Someone get a rail!
I've got the tar bubbling hot and ready...oops!... outa feathers; maybe we can use Cedar Shavings!



Thanks a lot, Ken and Roberte...I am  paying attention. :wink: