swordtail

[ctruz1110]

i bought a female swordtail 2 months ago (she passed away aft giving birth to 22 babies).. i'm raising her babies in another tank. but i'm not sure whether she was fetilized by a male swordtail because before i bought her, she was sold together with some male swordtails and platies in the same tank. When will male children swordtail grow their *swordtail*?

[Incredulous_Ed]

Some time around 10-12 weeks I believe.

[gm72]

I'll be able to help with this along the way, too. I am raising 16 swordtail fry and have not yet seen any development of a swordtail.

[ctruz1110]

currently i only have a swordtail.. do i need to buy 2 girlfriends for him?? can swordtail crossbreed with platies/mollies??

[gm72]

I thought you were raising fry? You have an adult male as well? If you want more fry yes you will need a few females. Swordtails and guppies/platies/etc. won't crossbreed.

[ctruz1110]

i used to have a female swordtail that gave birth to 22 fry.. but she died. so i bought a green swordtail male but couldnt find any nice female in that shop. so i havent bought any until now.. all my swordtail fry are orange.. they r about 1.5cm now. how about yours?? how many weeks r they?? mine about 2 months but still so small.. is it normal??

[gm72]

Mine are about, say half an inch or so now. They are around a month old now. Our fry sound about the same size, yours being older. Keep feeding them, they'll grow! Mine don't really have any color yet.

[ctruz1110]

oh no.. but i feed them 4 times a day. maybe my tank is too small for them..

[gm72]

How big is the tank?

[ctruz1110]

... actually... it is just around 8x8x8 inch.. i used to have a bigger one but i broke it. how big are u using?

[gm72]

8x8x8 makes your tank about 2.2 gallons? You have 22 fry in a tank that size? Mine are in a 10 gallon for growing out.

[ctruz1110]

oh no..i'm torturing my babies??? but they r so happy.. i change water every two days now. i can see that they r growing. some r bigger than others. so i put those bigger one in my 12g tank together with other adult fishes.. and those remaining grow so fast..

[gm72]

You are seriously horribly overstocked. In a 2.2 gallon tank you should have about a max of 6 fry if each are about .5 inches! Stunting growth at this point.