dodgers948

On a scale of 1-10 what would you rate the difficulty of breeding swordtails? 1-easiest;10-hardest. And do you have any suggestions for easier breeding?

momo9700

1, you pretty much put two females and one male in a tank, and in a couple weeks, BAM! You got yourself swordtail fry.

Nick G

Guppies. They have to be the easiest, but Swordtails are just about as easy. If you want to breed them you'll need 1 male and at least 2, preferably 3 females. The Male to Female ratio needs to be 1/3 otherwise the males will chase the females to death trying to mate with them. You'll also need a breeder trap and fry tank if you want the fry to survive. You might get a few survivors if they birth in the main tank, but most will get eaten by the other fish, including the parents.

dodgers948

I heard putting kosher salt in the tank helps with breeding. Is this true?

Nick G

Not that I've heard. You don't need to do anything to get Swordtails to breed. As long as you have healthy males and females they will breed.

momo9700

I think so, but don't risk it. Swordtails will breed like crazy with or without it, and salt can sometimes have nasty effects on your tank.

agabr123

getting them to breed is easy, the harder part is getting the fry to survive. if you don't have a separate tank that you can either move the parents or the fry into, then you'll want to cover the intake and output on your filter so the fry don't get sucked into it or blown around, and you'll want to look into making infusoria for the fry to eat. they can also eat flake food as long as you crush it into a powder

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/fi...food-fish.html

SammyJ

I was unaware that swords ate their young. I may have to buy a breeding trap when I buy my Koy Swords. Can say for certain that letting guppies just birth into a tank will net you few survivors out of a batch though. One made it past the feeding frenzy (that little girl is now my favorite fish in my tank ).

I didn't start the thread but helpful advice from those that responded. Ty much as it will save me a lot of dead fry when I am trying for Koi Sword fry.