How Long For Swordtail Fry To Show Gender?

[kristins1877]

How long does it take to tell the gender of swordtail fry? Are the males born with their sword? Mine are only a few days old and I know I wouldn't be able to tell for a while, just so anxious!

 

[nosoup4you]

Some of them will sex out at about 12 weeks but some of them will take longer. They don't usually begin to get swords until later so you will have to sex them by checking for gonopodia.

 

[Truck]

yes as said abouve, the gonopodium will start to become aparant. i thought i had 3 females...all males in the end, but you will see the swords grow very faintly then they start to grow very fast, mine started getting a sword about 3 weeks ago and its 4cm long already

 

[OldMan47]

Swordtails are sometimes known to not show the sword or a gonopodium for well over 6 months. Most you will be able to tell at around 3 months but I have one right now that just started to show as a male that is about 8 months old. Until recently he looked female.

 

[sword-guy]

How long does it take to tell the gender of swordtail fry? Are the males born with their sword? Mine are only a few days old and I know I wouldn't be able to tell for a while, just so anxious!

Hello

Just wanted to let you know, it's going to take about 2-3 months. My marble sword gave birth on 11/15 to 25 fry. They were about an eighth on an inch when born. Today they are half an inch and all look like females at 5.5 weeks. The same female gave birth again and had 48 fry, slightly smaller but quite different in color from the first drop. I was amazed and slightly horrified at the amount. I've gotten over that and can't wait to see how this second batch will look.

My marbles have an opaque background with a light blue sheen over the black blotches and spots. This new batch shows many that are speckled or almost neutral with a few spots, in color. I feed them a mix of decapsulated brine shrimp & a fry food called "first bite". I'm amazed at the speed in which they grow. I also do water changes every other day and a full change 1x a week. For now, I use a 5 gal. tank with an air stone. If you have plans for the females, you will need to start separating what looks to be females from what may or are males by 3 months, as they are ready to breed by that age. -

I have quite a few different swords and would like to meet and contact others who share a love for these beautiful live-bearers. I'm new and will be posting some pics of what I have as soon as I learn how to go about this site.

 

[helterskelter]

Some swords take a very long time to mature. Yes they will from about 6 week's of age.
But some males are are suppressed if their are other males ie brother or dad etc etc.

These suppresses males have been known to take upto a year to mature before.
How ever these are the very best males you have with a much larger size than normal.

This is where the idea of sex changing swordtails comes from, as true sex reversal is very rare.