About a week ago, I bought a new lyretail female swordtail that proceeded to eat all my smaller fry that could fit in her mouth.
I was left with only the big fry, but out of those, I lost 2 of them under odd circumstances, the next day after I did a 50% water change (I usually do 26% + the daily small changes)
First one was the biggest fry, refused to eat during the morning. It disappeared after 4 hours.
Second was my favorite lyretail fry. Saw it breathing fast. Checked the water, nothing unusual. Later on, the fry seemed to have calmed down, though his tail was lowered (what some people around here call "being poorly"). He disappeared within 30 minutes after I last saw him at the surface of the water.
I'm now left with 2 big swordtail fry that I have placed in a cage and keeping them under observation.
Now, the problem is:
My blood-red female hasn't been pregnant for 2 months now (she had 3 generations of fry so far) and she is not old, judging by her tiny size.
My male swordtail has lost interest in mating. He will stay around my red female that he knows ever since I bought them both, and he will stick up for his favorite female if she's being bullied by the other two females (a longfin and a lyretail).
When I added the new lyretail, he seemed interested in her a bit, but then quickly ignored her. He doesn't care about mating anymore, all he does is peck the sand, roam around and look at the plants, eat and sleep beside his mate.
The other females don't seem ready to give birth either.
Should I add another male swordtail? Or will that one probably pick on this male, which is already attacked by the lyretail females anyway?
I was left with only the big fry, but out of those, I lost 2 of them under odd circumstances, the next day after I did a 50% water change (I usually do 26% + the daily small changes)
First one was the biggest fry, refused to eat during the morning. It disappeared after 4 hours.
Second was my favorite lyretail fry. Saw it breathing fast. Checked the water, nothing unusual. Later on, the fry seemed to have calmed down, though his tail was lowered (what some people around here call "being poorly"). He disappeared within 30 minutes after I last saw him at the surface of the water.
I'm now left with 2 big swordtail fry that I have placed in a cage and keeping them under observation.
Now, the problem is:
My blood-red female hasn't been pregnant for 2 months now (she had 3 generations of fry so far) and she is not old, judging by her tiny size.
My male swordtail has lost interest in mating. He will stay around my red female that he knows ever since I bought them both, and he will stick up for his favorite female if she's being bullied by the other two females (a longfin and a lyretail).
When I added the new lyretail, he seemed interested in her a bit, but then quickly ignored her. He doesn't care about mating anymore, all he does is peck the sand, roam around and look at the plants, eat and sleep beside his mate.
The other females don't seem ready to give birth either.
Should I add another male swordtail? Or will that one probably pick on this male, which is already attacked by the lyretail females anyway?
