dark ages weaponry… ( the swords )

[Magnum Man36 150]

so a quick update swords are doing well… babies galore… no known losses… here one of the tanks dwarf crays covers an algae cookie, to protect it from a swarm of babies that also wanted it…

 

[Magnum Man36 150]

dominant male and a couple females….

 

[Magnum Man36 150]

swords are still going strong, another new batch of babies ( 5-6 batches all sizes ) so far no tails… the 1st 2 born, but not conceived here, were born a couple days after their arrival, are now mid sized, and appear to be females, all the others are too small to sex, but with the next biggest group, nearing a sexable size… my concern, is if something is not right, and all I get are females, that could be a problem… one good thing, is with extra females, the 2 males are not chasing each other around as much… fingers crossed I start seeing a tail or two on the next to get to a sexable size…

 

[Magnum Man36 150]

many months later, in with the swords, and the dwarf crays… the neocardia shrimp are still surviving…

dwarf cray only inches away, at the bottom of the sponge filter, the shrimp is on…

 

[Magnum Man36 150]

yesterday I missed getting a picture of the prettiest female, with the light shining on her, her body was glowing blue, with a highly orange colored dorsal… the tanks are getting what they need for maintenance, but with Mrs. illness, glass cleaning has suffered… which is probably better for the fish, as I see them grazing all the time, but certainly not as good for pictures…

 

[Magnum Man36 150]

so, the sword fry are growing… the 1st 2 not conceived, but born here, are about 1.5 inch’s long, or a little better… there are 4-5 conceived and born here, that are 1-1.25 inches long… the 1st 2 show every indication to be female… that next group, at that size, I would think should be showing signs of the sex, soon, but nothing in the way of a sword starting yet… there are 2 other groups still smaller yet… I know it’s too early to really be worried yet, but I’d really like to see some tails popping out… my 1st male ( clearly a male, showed when it arrived at about 1.5 inches ) I’m worried I may need to alter something to get males… which are really needed to resell…

BTW… I saw a large and brightly colored orange neocardia, in the tank tonight, a different one than I have been seeing lately, so they must be thriving, n the tank with the 5 dwarf orange crays…

a few developing fry…

 

[Magnum Man36 150]

another batch of new fry today… still no new tails… probably a good thing this is a 65 gallon tank, as there is my breeding colony, plus probably 40 total fry born here…

 

[Magnum Man36 150]

another new batch of babies… still no sign of a male in the 2 oldest batches

2 known males doing a little sparring at feeding time

 

[Magnum Man36 150]

removed a female from this tank, as a precaution… I noticed what looked like a few missing scales originally today she looks like a combination of ich, and fungus… I find it hard to believe it’s ich, as this tank has been over 80 degrees , the last week, being in the room with no air conditioning, and no newly added fish… she just had a batch of babies a couple days ago, so maybe both males were badgering her, and she is just beaten up… which I’ve not seen on any of the other females before… she’s not in an easy tank to get pictures of, but will attempt, after she starts moving around… not sure of the best treatment

 

[emeraldking15 66]

many months later, in with the swords, and the dwarf crays… the neocardia shrimp are still surviving…

Overhere, those swords do leave those cpos (orange dward crayfish) and shrimps also completely alone.

 

[Magnum Man36 150]

haven’t posted in this thread for a while… swords are still doing great, tons of babies, but I’ve yet to raise a male born here… so far… the dwarf crays, I’m not seeing them as much. so don’t think they are doing well , but the orange neocardia, are coloring up more, and out all over, so they are doing well…

 

[Tomsfish15 58]

another new batch of babies… still no sign of a male in the 2 oldest batches

2 known males doing a little sparring at feeding timeView attachment 383737

Are you raising the fry with the adults?
If so you may have males that won't show due to the hormones in the tank.
Swords are known to release Growth Inhibiting Hormones that can delay a young sword from showing male for over year.
I personally have seen this when I was raising many color swords from white albino, wild like yours to Ed Parker Jet Blacks.

 

[Magnum Man36 150]

I may end up separating the grown fry, before they get to adult size, and make it difficult to tell them apart, from the breeding females…

 

[emeraldking15 66]

If so you may have males that won't show due to the hormones in the tank.
Swords are known to release Growth Inhibiting Hormones that can delay a young sword from showing male for over year.

All swordtail fry overhere are raised with adults. And yes, I do know the hormones story. Yes, it can happen that one gets to deal with stunted specimens or that it will take long before males will show their male traits. But actually, I don't have that problem in none of my tanks where swordtail species are in due to the released hormones in the water.