Swordtail babies

[elliotdxn]

Hello all,
I am new to the site, but not the hobby. Swordtails are by far one of my favorite tropical fish and where as I have bred them or had them to breed in my tanks numerous times......I have never seriously raised the fry for myself. I now have about 50+ fry within a 15 gallon tank by themselves. My plans are to raise them to become very healthy adults which I would like to selectively pair and form good breeding stock. As of the current moment, I am feeding them 2 to 3 times a day with frozen baby brine shrimp and Artemia (poweder form). Having stated this, I am asking any advice on raising them as healthy and quickly as I can as I would seriously like to produce healthy stock from these guys. Thanks,

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

A 15gallon tanks isn't going to big enough to raise a batch of 50 swordtail fry to even half grown stage, if we are going by the 1inch of fish per gal fish stocking rule and you have 50 1inch swordtail fry you can see your fry tank is going to incredibly overtsocked. I suggest you put a large quantity of the swordtail fry back in the main tank and let them fend for themselves as there will still be a large proportion that will survive and just keep the fry tank for the best selected fry to raise- you'll find if the tank isn't overstocked you'll get healthier and faster growing tank and run less risk of an ammonia spike or desease epidemics.
What are you currently feeding your fry on?

 

[Annastasia]

Toxis, he said he was feeding them 2 to 3 times a day with frozen baby brine shrimp and Artemia in the powdered form. So I'd say that sounds pretty good, though you might want to alternate flakes in once in a while, because too much high protein foods can cause constipation, or bloating.

I agree with Toxis though. A 15 gallon isn't going to be nearly enough. You will either have to get a LOT more fry tanks, or get a bigger one, or you'll have to just do survival of the fittest in the tank. Though that's not good, if you want to do selective breeding. Maybe you should just get a whole bunch of 10-15 gallons?

And another thing...from what you said, I get that from this batch you want to breed a brother and sister? That's fine, but once you get further down the line, you'll get deformities, and weaker fry...so every couple generations, you might want to introduce a new fish from new genes...like a new fish from a fish store, preferably. Also, try to seperate the males and females as soon as you can possibly tell who is who. If you are doing selective breeding, you don't want tons of accidental fry running around!

Best of luck with your project, you'll have to let us know how it goes.

 

[elliotdxn]

Thanks guys, I will definitely be placing them in a larger environment to grow. I have a prefabricated pond in my back yard that I would love to place them in, but I would much rather have them where I can see them and select the best from the batches.......in addition to that, it is much harder to control the water conditions within a pond verses an aquarium......I will definitely keep you guys up to speed....Thanks,