Help! Whats Happened To My Swordtail?!?

[jailawes]

Help!

I've just noticed that my male swordtail has had major problem! I was feeding my community tank and left the room for about 10 mins, when i came back my swordtail was resting on the bottom with most of its caudal fin torn to pieces

He's still alive but hardy moving at all, what do you think has happened? The other fish in that tank are: Pleco, Silver molly, Honey Gouramis, neon tetras and black widow tetras and 3 african dwarf frogs.

I will try and get some pics, but at moment g/f has got digicam.

 

[Durbkat]

What size tank is it and how many of each fish do you have? What type of pleco do you have, a common pleco looks like this a bristle nose pleco looks like this or this

 

[widgetuk]

Poss the black widows

 

[jailawes]

my tank is 30 gallons and i'm about to move some of the following to a different tank, but at the moment i have the following:

1 x common pleco
1 x silver molly
10 x neons
4 x black widow tetras
2 x honey gouramis
2 x swordtails (1 male = poorly; 1 female)

I don't think he's going to last long,

 

[Durbkat]

It says in your sig you have 2 plecos what is the other one? I would have to say its the female that hurt it because its suppost to be 1 male and 3 females, are you sure its a female and not a male?

 

[jailawes]

the other pleco is in another tank.
When i brought the swordtails i was told that it was a male and female. I'm watching the poor fellow closely, he's hiding under the filter. how can i tell if the other swordtails is really a female?

 

[Durbkat]

Has either one of they released fry? Do you have another tank you can put the fish in?

 

[jailawes]

I've just put it in a breeding hatch at the moment. The thing is i've got another tank, but its only been running 2 days, i had to buy another one because i had problems with my plecos fighting and knowing everything over. So i don't think my swordtail will survive in the new tank.

Is the female supposed to have a long back fin aswell? cos the healthy one is bigger than this one and has an extended back fin, but not aslong as the injured swordtail (well not anymore)

 

[jailawes]

My swordtail died during the night, just to let u know what happened. Thanks for the advice though.

 

[emma12321]

Hi,

Female swordtails have no sword, they look a bit like platies, sounds like the other male attacked it.

Emma

 

[dwarfgourami]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

For future reference, swordtails like other livebearers are sexed by looking at the ventral fin (it's bottom). The female has a fan-shaped fin, the male has a rod-like contraption. And the male has the sword.

 

[jailawes]

Thanks for the advice, looks like i'm going to have to done more research and not just what the LFS say.