Male Swordtails without Females

[Billsjunkie]

I had my last female swordtail pass away on me the other week in the last few days of treating ICK. The two males survived. My question is, are the swords a schooling fish and should they have a female to keep them company or will two males do alright. Franky (pineapple sword) is always the clown of the tank but Sammy (velvet swordtail) is always gloomy looking. Do they need female partners to be happy?

 

[guppymonkey]

To tell you the truth, most of the time male swordtails don't do very well together. They have a tendency to fight. If you watch them they will sometimes swim backwards poking their sword at the other male. Its kind of like fencing. Adding females can do some good but if their aren't enough females it can lead to even more aggression. Swordtails usually don't hurt each other in their fighting but one always ends up being the loser and isn't as large or colorful as the other. I personally keep only one male swordtail in each of my tanks to stop the fighting and make them both happy.

 

[Billsjunkie]

They never fight at all. They did at first when the females were in there but now they just go about there business. I have never seen them fight or try to poke each other. Sounds Like I will pick up a couple females anyway though just to be safe.