goldyfishy

Hey there! I'm an aquarium newbie with swordtails. A friend gave us 6 adults--2 male and 4 females plus 6 babies. We are keeping them in a 10gal tank. They arrived 3 days ago. I'm noticing that the 2 males are following, nudging, generally just pestering one of the smaller adult females. They just don't let up on her. Is this aggression or mating behavior? They seem to let the other females alone. Now it seems like the other females won't let her near them. This poor female doesn't seem to have a friend in the tank. Any ideas on what's going on here? I'm afraid she's going to get stressed from the constant harassment.

Terri

Miss Mouse

Hello there, welcome to the world of fishies!
sounds like there might be a few too many fish in that tank to be honest. Do you know what you'll do when the babies grow up?
The rule is at LEAST 1 inch of fish per gallon of water.
Considering swordtails grow up to about 4 inches you shouldn't have more than about 6 in there so try and ease the pressure if you can.

Good luck!

fletch

Put that one female in a seperate tank. the other fish will be picking on her because she may show signs of weakness. this can cause sickness

Jason

yeah be careful if they are continually pestering her because she could develop fin rot like mine did.

joe

they are probably mating