swordtail hard to keep?

[Luke]

Hello,

I've had my tank up and running for about a year now and some swordtails were the first fish i put in the tank. Most of which died but one female lived and gave birth to a male which looks healthy and is growing well.

I put some more in a few months ago and they died after a day or two, then the other day i got some more and exactly the same has happened.

The tank is a large tank with proper heating, filtering etc and is home to many other fish that have no problems. Are swordtails hard to keep? Or is it just the place i'm buying them from. They all looked healthy in the shop and there were no dead fish in the tank.
Any advice anyone?

 

[UP UP AND GUPPY]

I had the same problem, I bought a mal pineapple swordtail and then 2days later it was dead. The stores tanks were healthy, no dead fish, crystal clear water. I was so shocked by this. I would like to know the same thing.

 

[Luke]

The one female i have left is a pineapple, the black female i put in on thursday died before and the male looks like it's on it's way out.

The two others i put in, both male and female died the same day.

 

[UP UP AND GUPPY]

What is your other fish in the tank? How big is your tank? And what are the water parameters? (ammonia, nitrites, etc)

 

[Luke]

It's a 55g tank, well planted.

Fish are 1 red tail shark, 4 gold barb, 3 tiger barb, 4 red nose tetra, 9 other mixed tetra, 8 small white mollys that were born in the tank, 5 small mixed platy, 8 white cloud mountain minnows, one female swordtail, one small male swordtail and 5 other tiny schooling fish but i forgot what they're called.

I haven't checked the ammonia and nitrites recently because everything seems fine, just this one type of fish that wont live.

 

[Luke]

I know the tiger barbs are probably a bad idea but i wasn't aware of them attacking other fish when i got them, the silly people in the fish place obviously thought i didn't need to know. I think they only attacked the black mollys i had though, they seem to get on ok with the rest and the shark seems to keep them in line.

 

[TheFighterFish]

Good question.

I can't really give you a 100% true answer. For example, there are many fish that are listed under as a beginner fish, yet I've had them die on me. I've lost 3 bronze corydoras in the past and they were supposed to be "hardy." Sadly, this morning my dwarf gourami was found lying at the top of the tank. My water parameters weren't that bad either: (10 Gallon)

Nitrate: 15 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Hardness: 100 ppm
Alkalinity: 50 ppm
PH: 7.2
Ammonia: .25 ppm

My nitrates are usually at 10 ppm. My ammonia is usually zero. I would blame it on the dead fish, but I could be wrong. I know my livebearers would appreciate a little harder water, but it's hard to change that.

Now to get to the point. My red swordtail (m) was my first fish. It survived a cycle in the 5 G and is happily swimming in my tank right now. I got him at Petsmart in February.

I can't explain to you why lose only swordtails. Maybe someone with more knowledge can help you. Good luck.

 

[silver dollars]

IMO they are not hard to keep at all. I have over 200 of them in my 75G tank(yes i know it is way over crowded) and most of them are babies. Have you tried getting them from other stores? It could be from the water at the store you get them from.

 

[Lotus]

They're not generally hard to keep, but there are a lot of weak, farm-bred fish out there that don't seem to be very hardy. I've heard a lot of stories of pet-store swordtails that basically keel over within the first few days. There seem to be a lot of pineapple swords on the market these days, and not all of them are strong.

Be careful to get more females than males when you get them. Male swords will pester females, stressing them and making them more disease prone.

As always, careful acclimation and putting fish in a quarantine tank will really help with the "died after two days" problems.

 

[silver dollars]

In my tank i don't have any pineapple swords I have mostly red neons, red velvets, and now alot of those "real" green swords, not those man made ones. Soon i will post some pictures i took of one of my 29G tanks that i cleaned moved alot of the babies from the 75G. But yeah i think it mght be the LFS also... i mean i never see them clean there tanks

 

[Luke]

Thanks for the replies, i'll get some from another place and post again to let you know if they live. I'm amazed the last one of the few i got on thursday is still alive this morning.

 

[Stevie]

I would get rid of the tigers in that tank. they might nip at the tails of the sowords!

 

[Luke]

Yeah, i'm trying to get someone to take them off me, one of the local aquariums will take them but their tanks are small so i'm looking for someone else to take them. I'd like to put one or two guppys in the tank but i think it's a bad idea until i can get someone to take the tiger barbs.

 

['-JIN-']

dun pt guppy swordtails like to nip sometimes.bt for me swordtails like live foreva,wont die,hahaz.bt i think is my country temp.i ask my LFs duno it is true or nt,they r gd tolerate to ammonia n pH bt poor to temp.im nt sure coz they wanna gt money only............

 

[Jayrod7]

ok i have the correct answer to all the livebearers questions (thats pretty much all i keep *celebrate).

Male swordtails are like bettas in a way but not as drastic. you should only keep 1 male in a tank with swordtails because they will fight each other to the death, not just all at once. they will pick on each other off and on until the other one is dead, or in somecases the other male goes and hides under a rock except for feeding (moved this fish to other tank were it is happy now).

Females should be fine, just remember 1 male sword.

Hope this helps a bit
Jay

 

[Triple88a]

i have 2 male swords and 2 females, 1 guppie (had 4 but 3 died), 2 albino corys, and 1 unknown catfish.. swords dont dont eat much compared to the guppie so you have to be careful.. my female swords only eat flakes (tetramin tropical flakes) while my males eat my catfish food (pills-tetramin tropical tablets), so far i had my tank for a bit over 2 weeks and my swords are living happy and stong life. I also used to put the flakes inside the water, actually dip your fingers inside the water so the flakes dont just float on top.. my guppis allways would eat all the food and my swords would not get anything so thats why i did that and thats why 3 of my guppies died...

i also bought the 2 male swords first for about half a week and the got the 2 females.. so far no fighting...