Is it a swordtail?

[cheekeyarab]

A few weeks ago I bought a "platy" from a shop where the staff appear to know less about tropical fish than I do. Quite an achievement!

Anyway, I looked in a book to sex the fish and it is definitely a male. I checked the size and as it said it would only grow to about 1.2in I thought it would be fine with my two females and the other fish I have in there.

I became concerned when I noticed it was much larger than it should be. At this time I also noticed it's tail had changed and a definite sword is growing. Also the other fins are slghtly different to the platies.

I am pretty certain it is a swordtail but I don't know how big he will get. i only have a 20g tank and I think this is too small. Also will he be happy on his own?

What size tank would I need to get if I wanted to keep him?

Lastly I have heard I should give my fish greens, which ones are best and is there anything I need to do to them (i.e cucumbers; float on the top of sink to the bottom)?

Thanx for your help.

 

[Polardbear]

Sounds like a swordtail to me! While I keep my swordies in a 55 and a 75 gallon tank a 20 gallon should work ok for him. They like some swimming room, is it a 20 long?

Swordies will breed with platys but it wouldn't be a bad idea to get him a couple of swordtail females if you have room for them.

My swordtails love to eat peas. Get the frozen kind and microwave them for 45 seconds to a minute, cool them and then pop them out of their shells and mush them up a little. The first 2 times I fed them they didn't show any interest but the third time they went nuts for them. They go crazy now for them and will get in little tug-o-wars over the pieces.

 

[cheekeyarab]

Thank you for your reply, will definitely give them some peas.

I have tracked down more info on swordtails and found out they are quite prolific breeders. I don't think I will get any females because of this. Do the males fight with each other or would he be happy with another boy in the tank?

Also you say he will breed with the platies. I read platies only have small numbers of fry, which is one reason I liked them. If he was to breed with the platies do you know if they would be likely to have more fry because of this and is it a wise idea to let them breed?

 

[Polardbear]

In a 20 gallon tank I'd probably just stay with the one male. The males do have a tendency to squabble with each other and if they don't have room to get away from each other it can get ugly.

If he does breed with your platys I really don't know what effect it would have on the size of the batch. However, if you leave the mothers in the tank to give birth most likely a lot of the fry will get eaten (it's the natural process), you might get a few survivors. Platys can be quite prolific breeders themselves from what I understand.

Platys and swordies are often crossed by breeders to create new strains. I don't personally have any problem with the crossing of them but others may not agree. I don't know if LFS will accept the offspring however so that might eliminate one possible source for rehoming the offspring. As far as "letting them breed" or not, if they are in the tank together, eventually, as he matures they will breed. It's pretty difficult to stop a male swordie from attempting to breed. They pretty much have 2 things on their mind - eating and breeding. (Well, most of them).

 

[GSD]

any pics?

 

[cheekeyarab]

Thanx for the info.

No pics I am afraid as I have no idea how to upload them. Will ask my hubby if he can do it when he gets home from work!