Koi Swordtail

[PaBucsFan]

I have only been taking care aquariums for about 2 years now and I must say Koi Swordtail have been my favorite breed of Swordtail to date. I am only able to find them at my local Petco. I wish I had so LFS around that sold these beautiful fish. I was wondering if any knows a great deal about them such as breding parameters, common diseases that their type faces, and if anyone else enjoys raising them.

 

[PaBucsFan]

Does anyone have personal or general background information about Koi Swordtail?

 

[OldMan47]

They are much like any other pet shop swordtail. They are best kept in groups of several females for each male and it is safer to have only a single male in a relatively small tank like a 20 gallon. In a 55 gallon or larger tank, a few males can coexist but they are not peaceful fish when it comes to crowding male swordtails in the presence of females.

 

[PaBucsFan]

They are much like any other pet shop swordtail. They are best kept in groups of several females for each male and it is safer to have only a single male in a relatively small tank like a 20 gallon. In a 55 gallon or larger tank, a few males can coexist but they are not peaceful fish when it comes to crowding male swordtails in the presence of females.

Okay! I actually awoke a few days ago to find my final female kicking the can over night. I did a 50% water change in fear of an ammonia spike. When I was at my LFS they had a male Koi Swordtail. I bought him without thinking and I think I lost my previous four Koi Swordtails because my water wasn't clean enough. I intend on babying him until I can get a bigger filter and get 2-3 females for breding. What is odd is that during the span of losing all 4 of the Koi Swordtails none of my mollies showed any signs of disease and still haven't.

 

[OldMan47]

If you have had your mollies a long time, it is possible they will have adjusted to your water as the quality deteriorated. Adding new fish means they need to adapt to your water from whatever they have been kept in. This is the basic premise for a condition called Old Tank Syndrome.

I do not know your maintenance routines but OTS is a killer that was once far more common than it is today. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, people thought water changes were not a good idea so their water would slowly get worse over a long time. Almost all new fish were doomed to die of OTS in those days. With the typical advice for frequent large water changes today, such losses are far less common except among fish keepers who listen to us old timers when the old timers have failed to learn. .

 

[PaBucsFan]

If you have had your mollies a long time, it is possible they will have adjusted to your water as the quality deteriorated. Adding new fish means they need to adapt to your water from whatever they have been kept in. This is the basic premise for a condition called Old Tank Syndrome.

I do not know your maintenance routines but OTS is a killer that was once far more common than it is today. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, people thought water changes were not a good idea so their water would slowly get worse over a long time. Almost all new fish were doomed to die of OTS in those days. With the typical advice for frequent large water changes today, such losses are far less common except among fish keepers who listen to us old timers when the old timers have failed to learn. .

My tank recently completed its cycle. I have a 7.4 pH straight from my well, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and never more than 20 nitrate as I change 1/5 of the water twice a week until it cycled. Now that it is cycled I may do one 1/4 change per week with a 50% at the end of each month. The male Koi Swordtail is still alive and swimming just fine. With my original 4 Koi Swordtail is it possible a disease hit them and I eliminated it before I got to the Mollies?

 

[OldMan47]

I suppose that is possible.
With your well, do you have any idea how hard the water is? Mollies can go with very hard water, much harder than most other fish would tolerate while swordtails are more similar in reaction to minerals to most other tropicals.

 

[PaBucsFan]

I hate to admit it but I do not know how hard the water is in the well. I have been told by people who live around me that the water is hard. I should upgrade my test kit from the standard high pH and pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate and get the nice test kit that has the water hardness test with it.

 

[OldMan47]

You can buy a simple test kit made by API for about $5 on e-bay that tests KH and GH. No need to go with a fancy test kit when it is something you will seldom use. The kit is not carried by most LFS because it is so seldom needed. It would definitely be useful if you have water on the hard side and decided to raise soft water fish because it could guide you in how much pure water to mix with the tap water to get an appropriate concentration.

 

[PaBucsFan]

I will definitely be looking into it was I want to protect my investment once I re-stock my females. P.S. - my male Koi Swordtail is still doing great!