How To Breed And Genral Info On Swordtails

[Bazaman]

My plan is once i buy a house which should be in the next 3-4 months(hoping for quicker but it all depens on finding a good house at the right price) I am going to be adding another couple tanks to my current three. once i get another tank or two i would like to get some swordtails of a good breeding stock and start breeding them. I am new to breeding and looking for more information on this species. i am lucky to have an uncle who has been breeding tropical fish for over 30 years but i also realize it can be bad to limit my knowledge source to one person. So what i would like is general information on the actuall speices, care and raising, and on breeding them. Thank you.

Josh Picard

 

[5teady_2012]

Swordtails are easy to breed, get 2-3 females to every 1 male, and they will breed with no special requirments.
They have fry every 4-6 week, on average every 4 weeks. They can have anywhere from 1-150 fry (average 20-50)[; the more times they have fry, the greater the number of fry in most cases.

swordtails like mollies and guppies and platys will eat thier young, so a well planted tank with lots of hiding places will be beneficial. Or you could also use breeding traps.

One the swordtail is impregnated by the male, the male does not need to be even present in the tank for another 6 months (on avergae) because the female will store sperm packets, basically as an example, she will have fry every 4 weeks for 6 months of just 1 mating.

Its always best to setup a growout tank for the fry when breeding, you will be surprised just how quickly a tank can be over run with fry. (10-20 gallon grow out tank is very ideal)

sexing them is very easy due to the male having a long pointy sword on its Caudal fin.

Here is some more info on Swordtails


Swordtail-Xiphophorus helleri

Size : Up to 5 inches (13 cm)
pH : 7 - 8
Temperature : 72°F - 82°F (22°C - 28°C)
PH 7-8
Lifespan : 3 - 5 years
Origin / Habitat : Central America
Tank Size : 10 gallon or larger
Tank Region : All over the tank

Hope this info is useful to you.

 

[Bazaman]

perfect thank you very much. that is exactly what i wanted to know. i just know that when looking into a new fish for breeding you want to learn as much about the species as possible. so again thank you

 

[5teady_2012]

Your welcome, i agree learning as much as you can is the best way.

good luck and if you have any more questions feel free to ask

 

[FishBlast]

Also be aware that some that look like females will turn out to be males (had one of these, it killed the other male I got it for as a female). Or sometimes after a female has given birth to several batches of fry, she will start growing a gonopodium and sword tail (happened once to me)

And blood-red swordtails are aggressive. Beware those.
Best to start off with oranges as they are resistant and calm.
Can also get black berlins (which can have nice colors reflecting from their scales) but watch out as these are more sensitive and breeding trios must be either 2 orange females and 1 black male or 2 black females and 1 orange male. The reason for this is that if black mates with black, their fry may get black in their fins, which may result in cancer.

 

[5teady_2012]

Also be aware that some that look like females will turn out to be males (had one of these, it killed the other male I got it for as a female). Or sometimes after a female has given birth to several batches of fry, she will start growing a gonopodium and sword tail (happened once to me)

And blood-red swordtails are aggressive. Beware those.
Best to start off with oranges as they are resistant and calm.
Can also get black berlins (which can have nice colors reflecting from their scales) but watch out as these are more sensitive and breeding trios must be either 2 orange females and 1 black male or 2 black females and 1 orange male. The reason for this is that if black mates with black, their fry may get black in their fins, which may result in cancer.

I also had a female that gave birth to fry and then grew a sword and gonopodium but it died soon after the change, after much research in to this apparently females that do change sex dont last long at all. (although some males are just late at maturing, it was confrmed that females can actually change sex, but its not very often it happens) during research as well there was a section that explained how a female can also change sex when being harrased constantly by a male, but again they soon die after the change

I also found red swords aggresive.
never heard of the cancer thing though, thats a new one to me.

 

[OldMan47]

Swordtails are actually among the first animals that were kept for cancer research. They can be bred easily to produce known frequencies of melanomas. By knowing what to expect in terms of melanoma frequency, the researchers could check their proposed treatments to see if they were helping or not. You can get a quick read of that swordtail source and what they are doing these days here. I see they are still producing strains for research with known morphologies in terms of this statement in their description: "Unlike most mammals, where fertile hybrids between species are difficult or often impossible to produce, Xiphophorus hybrids are almost always fertile and are extremely valuable for their genetic variability and their very specific susceptibilities for many different cancers." It sounds like they have branched out beyond the original melanoma research.

 

[5teady_2012]

Intresting read oldman, thanks for posting that, i never knew any of thatabout the swordtail, and thats what i love about this hobby, there is always something new to learn

 

[FishBlast]

Also be aware that some that look like females will turn out to be males (had one of these, it killed the other male I got it for as a female). Or sometimes after a female has given birth to several batches of fry, she will start growing a gonopodium and sword tail (happened once to me)

And blood-red swordtails are aggressive. Beware those.
Best to start off with oranges as they are resistant and calm.
Can also get black berlins (which can have nice colors reflecting from their scales) but watch out as these are more sensitive and breeding trios must be either 2 orange females and 1 black male or 2 black females and 1 orange male. The reason for this is that if black mates with black, their fry may get black in their fins, which may result in cancer.

I also had a female that gave birth to fry and then grew a sword and gonopodium but it died soon after the change, after much research in to this apparently females that do change sex dont last long at all. (although some males are just late at maturing, it was confrmed that females can actually change sex, but its not very often it happens) during research as well there was a section that explained how a female can also change sex when being harrased constantly by a male, but again they soon die after the change

I also found red swords aggresive.
never heard of the cancer thing though, thats a new one to me.

Mine carried on for another half a year and then I found her dead, but since I wasn't using a filter, I am not quite sure what exactly killed her. (the female that gave birth and then grew a tail).

My current one is a blood red, she managed to make the male obedient, lol. But she's also the one who scared another female into not eating and that one died. She's such a small fish, but can scare even my hoplo. She's the queen there, no doubt. But I am worried about the day I'll put her babies into the tank. She might see them as competition and harass them to death like she did to that female.

 

[OldMan47]

Sometimes I have seen a female swordtail that was simply too aggressive for her own good. It seems that is what you have in your tanks right now. Unfortunately an aggressive swordtail is not a good breeding candidate. It is not that she could not become impregnated but rather that she will not allow the necessary contact to happen. You would be better off finding a semi-compliant female instead IMO.

 

[FishBlast]

Sometimes I have seen a female swordtail that was simply too aggressive for her own good. It seems that is what you have in your tanks right now. Unfortunately an aggressive swordtail is not a good breeding candidate. It is not that she could not become impregnated but rather that she will not allow the necessary contact to happen. You would be better off finding a semi-compliant female instead IMO.

Well she's pregnant a second time now. She does let the male mate sometimes (probably because she's distracted by the fry in the cage).
I like that she can stand her ground, otherwise the male would be chasing her like no tomorrow unless I'd get a second female. I did have 2 females to 1 male, but since she killed the other one... I'm scared of getting another female. If I will need to get a new one, I'd probably go for a koi lyretail since I would like diversity, but lyretails being more calm, I'd see another case of getting picked on. -.-

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

maybe if you get another 2 or three females it will spread the agression around more?

 

[FishBlast]

maybe if you get another 2 or three females it will spread the agression around more?

Yeah but until I get that nitrite kit, I don't want to risk it and overload the filter. My dad said that if I make a card, he will help me activate it online... So far he hasn't loaded those 2 euros for me onto it. -.- Well yeah, I understand that he spent his money on the Easter dinner, but it's only 2 euros -.-

Plus, there are 2 tiny fry (other 2 died of some kind of bloating) who will hopefully grow up in that tank. I hope they're not both males like it seems. If they are, I would need to get another 2 females (even though it's 2 for each male) or trade one of the males for another female (I don't think Cracker can hurt anything besides fry, he's too busy watching his tail from Bee so he might tolerate another male).

Would be awesome if I could have a formation like 2 males and 4 females, if that won't work I'll have 1 male and 5 females. But if I cannot exchange one, it would be 3 males 3 females -.- And I feel like Cracker will be mopped the floor with.

 

[OldMan47]

I am not sure you understand my perspective at all FB. Why would I move the fish in the direction of a female that rejects contact with a male? That somehow seems counterproductive to me. My swordtails are plenty aggressive enough without adding that quality to the mix.

 

[FishBlast]

I am not sure you understand my perspective at all FB. Why would I move the fish in the direction of a female that rejects contact with a male? That somehow seems counterproductive to me. My swordtails are plenty aggressive enough without adding that quality to the mix.

Well, I'm not getting rid of Bee though, she's smarter than any other swordie I've had before. She's got almost the character of a Betta.
I'm not in this just for the breeding, but to have fish that will stick around for however long. Hence the reason I only want a limited number of them at a time. The only reason I want to breed these two (well, they succeeded on their own) is to have more to raise as young until they die of old age (hopefully not of diseases), and to have different variations of swordtails. I may keep these two fry and add one or two Lyretail females if I manage to get Bee to accept the other fish.