Tom

Are male swordtails supposed to be aggressive? Mine is being very aggressive and territorial. Please help because I don't like the aggression in my tanks.
Tom

Dino

They can be.

Try to have multiple females per male.
Also, break up the fish's line of sight as much as you can with your decor.
What they cannot see, they cannot hassel.

Tom

But there is plenty of stuff to do that. And what is strange is, he is scaring my kribs and my kribs are trying to hide from a little fish that is just over an inch long. I might take him to an auction in January, so I don't have any more of his shinanagons(?).
Tom

Dino

Sounds like a good idea.

Just a question, what is the temperature of the tank?

Tom

Just let me go check, I think it is at 81F, but I may be wrong, hold on.

An exact 80F. Why does it matter?
Tom

Dino

At higher temperatures, some fish become more aggressive.
I have observed this in both cichlids and livebearers.

Your temperature should not be a factor, though.

Tom

That's good.
Tom

swords3711

well he could be proving his dominance in the tank
i have a mollie that does that
if u want u could put him in a breeder cage for a few days to isolate him from the otherss and then let him back in after a few days, he should be fine then

swords3711

wat kind is he?

Tom

The store said he is a neon swordtail. Here is a pic of him.

The pic is old, he has a larger 'sword' that is orange with a black line along the bottom of his tail fin.
Tom

swords3711

He's awesome. We're just first getting some different swords again. For about three months we only had red and wag swords.

Tom

I got some(2) female friends for my little guy since he is still really aggresive. The females are koi swords and ready to drop some fry any day now, they came that way. So after that, the neon and koi can breed and I can get some interesting swords. I'll keep you guys posted. I'll also have pics asap.
Tom

swords3711

i liked the male koi spikes but i don't like em too much mainly cuz of their eyes. It reminds me of albino fish...which I'm not a big fan of.
I've got a female orange mickey mouse sword about to drop...I can't wait. The males I got with her are a red sword and a redish-orange mm sword whose startin to get black in his tail

Tom

Can't wait for the fry for both of us to get here. I'll have you a race, report when the fry get here and back it up with pics, and the loser has to tell when they get here and has to show the pics of the slow ones. lol
Tom

swords3711

Alright deal...lol
Mine'll probably be here in about three weeks maybe even be a christmas... to me
She's just startin to get a belly on her

Tom

Mine was bought with a huge black gravid spot and is so fat, I think she will be done dropping by the end of the week.
Tom

swords3711

heh heh
mine's belly is just starting to lighten up to a white
her gravid spot isn't even appearin yet
looks like ur gonna win

Tom

Looks like it. lol So guess what you have to do. lol
Tom

Tom

One of my females dropped during the night, but I still can't find any fry, so I am assuming that they were eaten.
Tom

Tom

Well my other female dropped a lot of fry today(20-30) and I plan on raising them and then putting them up for auction at one of my asw meetings. I can't get pics right now since the fry are in a breeder net and my camera doesn't do to well with the net.
Tom

swords3711

Congrats!!!
Good Luck
What should I do to get more productive fry
Feed the mother more or less?

Tom

What do you mean by productive?
Tom

swords3711

more healthy would be a better way to put it

Tom

I know that I feed mine BBS frozen or live and I end up with the same number I started with usually. I also isolate the female in a breeder net till she drops so I can get all the fry and this way I can moniter the numbers. Just a couple of tips from one breeder to another. I was able to get some pics, they turned out better than I had thought. I will add then asap.
Tom

Tom

Here are my swordtail fry, as well as some black guppy fry and a platy fry.

The sword fry are orange and white.
Tom

swords3711

Wow they already have a nice coloration!
About feeding, I meant the mother...sorry
I did get a new sword pair today. I went to this new petco and ive gotta say, I'm impressed! The tanks were neat and organized and the fish were beautiful. They had about 7 different types of swords there!-painted, red wag, red, pineapple, tuxedo, neon and assorted
The assorteds were only blue, but I'm goin to keep poppin in once in a while in search of my blackies!
There was even a tank of 24 Karat gold mollies that had about 10 nice sized fry in it.
They had probably over a hundred different bettas there, too!
I myself got a pair of the orange tuxedos. I was thinkin about the neon swords, but these weren't labeled correctly so I figured I might as well get them!

Tom

Same thing with the parents, feed them live food or even frozen foods will help with the production and success with the number of the fry.
Tom

swords3711

Unfortunately, I lost my female sword I just got today...

Tom

I'm so sorry, can you get the exchange on her?
Tom

swords3711

thank god yes
she had a nice color to her too
i just wish i wouldn't have lost her
it seems that my fish either die in the first two weeks or after about 5 months