Female Swordtail Is Now A Male! 3 Males 1 Female Advice!

[JodieLM]

Hi, bought some swordtails about a month ago..the fish store said i could have 2 males and 2 females. Thought it was a bit weird because they are livebearers but i went with it anyway. Now one of the females is a male!
 
Could i get 3 more females to even it out, get rid of the agression and stop them harrassing the poor lonely female or do i need to go back and change it for another female?
 
its a 15 gallon tank with 5 cherry barbs and a sparking gourami.
 
Hope you can help!
 
Jodie

 

[phoenixgsd]

you should ideally only have one male in a tank as they will fight, can you return or rehome 2 males

 

[Robbo89]

Had the same thing happen with one of my swordtails a while back. Just grew a sword out of nowhere! Funny stuff really

 

[the_lock_man]

If you've only just bought them, then they'll be late-developing juveniles. It happens a lot.
 
The ideal ratio of male to female livebearers is 1M:3F, if you can end up with that, you'll be doing fine.

 

[helterskelter]

Swordtail's are very active fish and 15 gallon's in not a lot of room to be honest for these fish, I'll remove males where possible.
 
Ratio's is not an issue as long as you have male females then the number of males. Males will happily fight with each other all day, so more room and fewer males they happier they are.

 

[Paradise3]

Swordtail's are very active fish and 15 gallon's in not a lot of room to be honest for these fish, I'll remove males where possible.
 
Ratio's is not an issue as long as you have male females then the number of males. Males will happily fight with each other all day, so more room and fewer males they happier they are.

 
Agree entirely with this. Swordtails are too active for a 15 gallon tank.
 
I also have to say that Sparkling Gourami's prefer groups while I'm here. I have 5 myself(Had 7, 2 randomly disappeared) and they are really social.