First Breeding Setup

I had a few tanks and extra equipment laying around so I figured I would set them up for breeding Swordtails. I still have some work to do on it. Top shelf will be two 5.5 gallon tanks with sponge filters, middle shelf is currently a 10 gallon with a sponge filter (May replace with a 30 gallon), bottom shelf is a 30 gallon with one or two AC30s. Heaters and lids for all, black backgrounds and bottoms for each also.

My thought is to house the adults in the community tank upstairs, 2 females to 1 male, place pregnant females in a breeder box, once all fry have emerged, move female back into community tank and bring fry downstairs to one of the 5.5 or the 10. As they grow they will be moved to the 30 until big enough to sell to my local fish store. Not looking to make a killing, even store credit will be great to put towards this hobby or buy dog food lol.

Please let me know what you think or any suggestions you have!

 

I never had much luck moving fry around to different tanks. The best survival rate was simply to have a dense area for the female to give birth and the young to hide till they got big enough and ventured out on there own.

 

I think you'll have better luck putting some decorations in one of the small tanks and using that like a breeding box so mom isn't so stressed. Put mom to be in a cup and move her down there to drop fry then put her back in the community tank. I've not had good luck breeding swords they don't like my water or something but I did have a female drop fry 3 days after purchasing and they are 4.5 months and still only 1.5 inches at best. My platies and guppies breed just fine and the fry grow much faster. I just took some guppies that were 2.5 months old and basically full size in for store credit. Idk if it's typical for swords to grow that slowly I suspect there is just something about my tap they just don't like. Any common live bearer fry can be feed finely ground flake food from day one and be perfectly healthy but live food helps speed up the growth a bit. Doing several small feedings throughout the day help with growth and doing frequent water changes helps too. Talk to your local fish store now and see if they will take them and what they will give you. You can also ask if specific color sell better.

 

Thanks for the input. If moving them around doesn’t work I do have another 55 that needs to be resealed and the top brace replaced. I have spoken with my LFS a few times on bringing them fish. I’m in there every two weeks buying dog food so this breeding setup will go towards store credit for now. They usually don’t have swords either from selling them quick or lately it’s been from in reliable breeders.

 

Sounds like you have a market and a nice set up for starting. If you can get that 55 resealed that will be great for a grow out tank in a few months and then you can separate fry by gender which might help them grow faster and prevents unwanted breeding. I would eventually look into one more grow out at least 30 gallon when you can find it cheap on Craigslist or fb. In my town summer is a good time for finding cheap tanks. With 3 larger tanks you can use one for larger fry and pull out males and females as they grow and put them in the other 2. My only other suggestion to add is to see if there is an aquarium club in your area that has a deal with your lfs to get better prices on trade ins. For me joining the local aquarium club meant I got $1 per guppy instead of $1 per 6 guppies. Even if they don't have a deal with the pet store they might do several sales and auctions throughout the year where you can get cash for you fish instead of store credit. You probably aren't going to get very much for sword tails at events like this unless they are unique or nice big fish because most people attending are more advanced aquarists looking for something more unique but even with regular quality common swords you can sell a few. The club is also a great source of information.