MelissaF

This is a question regarding all live bearers. I have a 10 gallon tank and I want to buy a swordtail and maybe thinking about another different type of livebearers. I don't want to have to deal with babies though, I have no place to put them. Are livebearers ok by themselves (with other fish in the tank) or do they need to in pairs or schools?

MissMTS

Livebearers are generally fine by themselves. If you make sure that you get all males, you don't have to worry about the baby problem Just don't get more than one male swordtail because they can get very aggressive toward eachother. Male guppies make a beautiful tank. I looked at your aquarium info and saw that you have a pleco. Is it a common pleco? If it is, it will grow up to 2 ft long, and it is cruel to keep him in a 10g tank. He will probably get sick and die at a very young age from stunted growth. Many LFS's sell them and tell the buyer that they will only grow to be the size of the tank, but that is not true. Bristle Nose Plecos or Clown Plecos would be good in a 10 gallon though

MelissaF

I'm pretty sure he's a common pleco. What do the dwarf pleco's look like. My plan is that when my tank is ready for more fish (it's still cycling) I'm going to trade him in for a different algae eater.

MissMTS

There are lots of different kinds of dwarf plecos and they are all beautiful fish. Clown plecos and bristle nose plecos (I especially like the long finned kind) are great. Type the names of the plecos into google and you should be able to pull up a lot of images on them. plecofanatics.com is a great website and the people there know a lot about plecos. They also have a great gallery of pictures.

MelissaF

ok thanks

MissMTS

no prob

goggles

if you are going to get swordtails of the same sex to prevent breeding, do not get females, some people think its a mith but i have found it to be true, a female will change sex in a single sex inviroment. but not the other way around.

fishrule101

I have two swordtail and there are great fsih to have. Swordtails are great fish but can get two big for a 10g. They grow to about 4".