keeping male swords with other males

[wrs]

I have read that swordtail males are extremly aggresive to other males. I though have seen some tank stockings with a whole bunch of males.

I was wondering if it would be okay to have 4-5males,
2-3 swords
1 platty
1 guppy

in a 55 gallon tank. Of course there will be other fish as well, I already havce 2 f. guppies for the guy. I did have two sword girls, but one of them has ich, and I have nothing to treat it, so I doubt she will make it till I can get stuff.

 

[Polardbear]

Sometimes you can and sometimes you can't. It all depends on the males. In my 75 gallon tank I have 3 lyretail sword males and a young red painted male. They occasionaly chase each other around but get distracted easily as there are several females to catch their attention. Most of the time they get along fine. In my 55 gallon I had 2 males and about a dozen females, the 2 males hung out together (I think they were afraid of the girls). However, several months ago I had a male who would not tolerate any other males in his tank. I tried everything I could think of - more females (nope he just considered them all to be his), more males so that the fighting would get more evenly distributed ( nope he just beat them up in turn), larger tank (nope he claimed it all). You can try it but be prepared to have to seperate them, they can kill each other if you are unlucky enough to get an aggressive one.

 

[wrs]

well i do have another 55 so I would always be able to put him in there.