Butters

well, today I took a trip to my LPS and bought 2 male sword tails and 1 male platy for my 20 gallon community tank. I have some questins that I cant seem to find on the internet. Will the males fight with each other if there are no females in the tank? Do livebearers need others of their own kind? Will 2 swordtails be fine in a 20 high tank? I am prepared to take them back to the store for store credit if things dont work out. Thanks!

Dino

They should be fine.
Livebearers to not need to be kept in schools, like say tetras or barbs.

Be aware that swords and platies are jumpers, so keep the tanks covered.

Butters

Thanks for the help Dino. I'm at school now and surfing around looking at random fish care sites. Do you think that the males will fight even if there are no females in the tank? I saw some breif aggression last night but not to much. Do you think that this might be a problem? and do platies fight to if there are just males in the tank? thanks!

MissMTS

Generally, it is reccommended to keeps swordtails in a 1M 3F ratio. I had two males in a tank together and not enough females to go around and one of the males ended up killing the other one. I would definetly keep an eye on yours and get some females if you can.

Butters

I dont know if getting females ould be an option right now. Should I just take them back now and try to get store credit and get some other fish or should I just wait and see?

MissMTS

You could keep one male swortail by himself or you could trade in the 2nd male for a female. I think keeping the two males together would be asking for trouble though.

heartsongsinger

I had 3 males with no females and they were fine. I only had problems after I added two females. Now I have 9 swordtails

Shadow Sichlid

Putting 2 male swordtails together is fatal for them. they will attack eachother and eventually 1 or both will die. the male to female ratio for swordtails is 1 male to every 3 females

matt

I wouldnt trust everything you read on the internet( Trust this site tho) because it is not all true and sadly some nasty little people just say stuff about fish that isnt true just so it makes you happy but then when u try it it doesnt actually work.

Sadly that is true.

From Matt

heartsongsinger

I had two males together with no females and they were fine. I also had 3 males in with 6 females and everyone was fine.