2 New Females. Kinds Boring...

[afireinside]

Yes I'll take some, but last time I went there, about 50% of the fish had ich!

 

[Annastasia]

How about a male 5G and female 10G? I'm not so keen on re-setting up my 10G, seeing it was alot of work tearing dowbn and such, but If I have to do it...I hope I dont egt attached when their growing That'd cause so many problems I wouldn't know what to do!
Are swordtails like guppies, when they get fertalized once, even if you take the male away, they can spawn again? because I can only handle so many for soo long.

Nah, 5 and 10 aren't going to cut it to get them to that age. I mean, if you figure it...

1st month she has 20
2nd month she has 20
3rd month she has 20

That's a pretty low number of fry really, and the youngest you are going to sell them. So you'll have about 30 fry per tank. In 3 months. Minimum. This is why you always want to think through breeding before you start.

Yep, once they have stored the sperm, they can have up to 7 more pregnancies without a male.

And you probably will end up having to give them away, let me just warn you. Don't count on them paying for themselves.

 

[Ethos]

My male just died.
I thought I had taken care of the gap for the time being.
I was wrong. He was the best looking male I've been able to find for my tastes.
I couldn't find him in the tank this morning, when I looked at them. I just though he was hiding

 

[Annastasia]

You seem to be having a lot of deaths lately...what were your latest water stats, and what size tank was this male in? I assume it's been cycled for a long time? And how often do you do water changes?

Sorry to hear about your male, may he

 

[Ethos]

Well, I haven't check in my 10G for a while. I know my PH for my 55G cichlid tank is around 7-8.
My was much lower than that a few months ago when I tested it.
i do water changed atleast once a week, and feed them daily.
the temp stays around 79-82 f.
Its been cycled for over a year, Its my first tank.
I took about 50% of the gravel out a few weeks ago and gave a deep cleaning to it.
Could something in the water cause the m to jump?
I'm afriad to go in there now because I dont know what I'll see next.
I patched the whole hole up with a plastic bag, held down with ducktape, a nd that should work for a few days untill I find a better alternative.

 

[Annastasia]

Bad water quality can sometimes cause them to jump. I'm not talking pH....I mean Nitrite, Nitrate, and Ammonia. Can you go check them and tell me what they are?

But most importantly, make sure all possible jumping holes are sealed.

 

[Ethos]

I myself dont have a water test kit, which I should of gotten when i got my 55G, but finances ran short.
So did my parents temper with me "borrowing" money.
They love me, lol.
Is there anything in the mean time I can do to make sure that there's decent water before I can check it?

 

[Annastasia]

Oh boy. You definitely need to get one ASAP. It's a big thing to check water quality when you have a sick fish, or there are fish deaths. Your tank could be re-cycling, since you can't check it. Have you washed the filter recently?

Nothing you can do to check it...just keep up on the water changes.

 

[Ethos]

I washed the filter maybe....a month or two ago?
I was this close (____) to tearing it down.
I cleaned out the filter, took 50% of the gravel out, and took out every singel plant.
Not its reset up, and I'd assume it'd have the same water quality?

 

[Annastasia]

Well, yes, but if you washed the filter, you took out the beneficial bacteria. If you just put these Swordies in, they started the tank cycling. Which would make you have to do daily water changes, to keep the levels down, and since you didn't the water quality got bad leading to them jumping out...

That's what my guess is. I'd get a Liquid test kit as soon as possible, or take it to your LFS to be tested. You'll want to see if the tank is cycling or not.

 

[Ethos]

No, I had White clouds in the tank for about 3 weeks before I put the swordtails in. I've only kept swordtail a week or so. Not even. I got them last saturday.

 

[Annastasia]

Still, some tanks can take over a month to cycle. That tank amy not even be finished cycling. You basically whiped out ALL of the beneficial bacteria when you cleaned everything.

I'd get the water tested ASAP, and post the results back here. Then we'll be able to see if the tank is still cycling. Or if water quality is even the issue. Sometimes fish are just sick when you get them. How long did you acclimate them?

Also, you seem to be good friends with Oppositearmor. Could you borrow his testing kit?

 

[Ethos]

Also, you seem to be good friends with Oppositearmor. Could you borrow his testing kit?

I dunno, he said it didn't work very well.
Plus I've only met him once in person, and that was when we met at a football game. (We won!)
I might get to go to petco tomorow... i'll try and get one then. Should I try and get a ligiud one, or a strips one?
Which one is cheaper?

 

[Annastasia]

Oh, sorry, my bad. )

I'd go for Liquid. Strips are cheaper, short time, however they are less accurate and don't last nearly as long. Go for the Liquid, and be sure to get NitrIte, NitrAte, and ammonia. That's all you need to worry about for now.

And good on ya for doing the right thing for your fish! I'm sure they will enjoy it and be happy with you for the rest of their (Hopefully long) lives.

 

[Ethos]

Does the liquid color bother the fish, and how long does the color last?
How expansive?