Comments on: Swordtail Breeding

By: Fish Tank

Fish Tank — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:38:16 +0000

Put her in now.

By: can

can — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 14:30:13 +0000

helloo, I have 2 guppy males, and 4 guppy females. one of the females looks pretty pregnent. the belly is pretty big, bigger than the others. and i see the gravid spot, but I dont know when I should put her in a breeding box? please answer me. i realy need some help. thanxx for the answers!!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 26 May 2011 02:25:42 +0000

hi there, i know this may sound cruel to some, but have you found it ever necessary to cull any of the young off due to deformities or unnatural growth development? I am new to owning tropical fish, and have just finished setting up and stocking a 90L tank about half a month ago. I have just bought a breeding tank for my pregnant swordtail. I would just like to be prepared for the worst that may happen.

Rachel

By: Fish Tank

Fish Tank — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 22:22:33 +0000

Hi Jon!

Thanks for the detailed system! It’s good to get different ideas on technique.

Mike

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 22:25:02 +0000

Well i am used to raising Fancy Guppies (and raising swordtails and Platies seem to be the same).. I do it a little different to reduce the amount of fry eaten by the Adults..

My Green Swordtail female just gave birth to about 42 fry, i stopped counting at 42.

I have 4 Tank set-ups

*I have a 2.5g raising tank, heavily planted and some java moss at one end.(gives then organic matter to nip at and also fiding places)

*I have a 10g plant ONLY tank, that has a lottt of cover and driftwood

* i have a 5g tank that doubles as a Qurantine tank…

*and i have a 20g Display tank.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The 20g is a mixed community tank, once the “loving” is done and the female/s are gravid (pregnant). I will pull the female once i can view the eyes of the fry and the gravid patch starts to get dark and place them in the 10g PLANT ONLY tank if there is only one female at that time (if there are 2 i will put them in the 10g in a divided breeding trap with a open grid bottom… in this case the fry will fall through into the tank and away from the mother… i will also do this if i will be away for more then 24 hours and can’t check every 3-4 hours.).. I check the tank about 3-4 times a day (or every 4 hours). My daughter helps with this part lol. This way you sometimes catch her in the act of giving birth (it’s a good lesson for the kids and also for Adults). The fry are free swimming as sooon as they are born.

The mother will not start to eat her fry till she is done giving birth (usually 2-3 hours) which falls right in with your “check-ins”.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Once she has given birth, i take hor out and place her in the 5g tank to relax b4 returning her to the 20g Display tank.

I then net or syphon the fry from the 10g and place them in the 2.5g where they grow out….. i usually have a batch of fry every 2-3 weeks .

I let the fry grow out to about 2 months in the 2.5g, and keep about 2-3 from each batch that have the best color and health and thoes lucky ones goes into my 20g Display tank and into my breed stock.

The rest are given away to friends or sold cheap to local pet stores.

Hope that helps.. I have pix of the whole deal if anyone would like to see. Please e-mail me at JonRich918 [at] aol.com and i’ll respond with pix.

By: Fish Tank

Fish Tank — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:41:10 +0000

Crushed up food should be fine. Sounds like you are doing ok!

By: sam

sam — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 04:05:35 +0000

I had my male pineapple swordtail for about 2months. The guy at the fish store said he will only breed female pineapples however, when I brought home a female red velvet, he was a happy fish! About two months after that, I noticed an orange fish I never saw before and it was a baby swordtail! It was about a third the size of the mother when I finally noticed it. I couldn’t even tell she was pregnant and I have no idea how many fry there were. The baby looks exactly like the red velvet mother now, I call her a teenager, now about half the size of mom. I don’t seperate my mom at all, I watch the pineapple breed her all the time and I decided to keep it natural as long as mom doesn’t look stressed. May not end up with as many as fast but survival of the fittest is ok by me. Also have baby plecos now! Haven’t even tried for that!

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:21:39 +0000

My swordtails just had a brood, thats actually how i found this website. I had a Kribensis African cichlid in the tank with it and the kribensis ate most of them during the night, when they actually came out. But i was able to get four of them out of the tank in time luckily, i am kind of confused on how to feed them. one friend said put lettuce in and stuff will grow on it that they love, but everywere on the internet says just crushed up fish food. The water hardness is very low (i read in a book that helps young fish and plants) and the ph is just right, and im trying to keep the temperature at about 72-ish but i dont have a thermometer for them. If you have any suggestions please reply. Thank you for the post!

By: Coop

Coop — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 21:46:43 +0000

I have a question: is it possible for swordfish to have differn’t colored fry? When I mean by that I mean if a red and white swordfish had fry, would the fry be pink once they become adults? the reson is i tried that, and the mother died while preg.

By: Schedule

Schedule — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 04:24:10 +0000

You you could change the post subject Swordtail Breeding | Fish Tank | Tank of Fish to something more catching for your content you make. I enjoyed the blog post however.