Swordtails In 90 Litre Tank?

[SammoTD]

I am currently cycling my first fish tank fishlessly, and was hoping to have a couple of swordtails in there when it is done. The dimensions of the tank are 70 x 35 x 40cm.

Would 2 swordtails be okay in a tank of that size?

Also please note that there will also be 4-6 corys and 10 or so cherry barbs in the tank aswell.

Thanks, sam

 

[FishBlast]

I am currently cycling my first fish tank fishlessly, and was hoping to have a couple of swordtails in there when it is done. The dimensions of the tank are 70 x 35 x 40cm.

Would 2 swordtails be okay in a tank of that size?

Also please note that there will also be 4-6 corys and 10 or so cherry barbs in the tank aswell.

Thanks, sam

Usually, swordtails need to be in numbers of 3 and in the formation of 1 male + 2 females at least.
I've seen people having a group of males but they will bicker and if one is aggressive, he will kill the rest.

In my case, I got away with having only 1 male and 1 female, as they seem to balance out when it comes to bickering. The male doesn't stress the female anymore, she is stronger than him and they now seem to have calmed down, unlike 2 weeks ago when they were arguing over food or new additions (rocks) to the tank. My female's pregnant again too. I already have 2 fry from this pair.

I am not sure how many adults you can keep in a 90L though, some websites say I can keep up to 6 swordtails with a hoplo in my 76L long tank in terms of bioload, but doesn't say much about how they'd like their territory to be in size. I'd rather keep 5 at most, depending on what the fry turn out to be, looks like at least 1 is a male so I might need 2 more females or 3 depending on what the other fry is.

 

[SammoTD]

So 1 male and 1 female might be okay, but keep an eye on them?

 

[FishBlast]

So 1 male and 1 female might be okay, but keep an eye on them?

Yeah, if the male keeps chasing her to no end, that's a sign you need a 2nd female.
Also, stay away from blood-reds if you want peaceful ones. Go for orange ones or a mix like 1 black male and 1 or 2 orange females or the other way around.
Don't breed black swordtail with black swordtail, as their babies might develop cancer if their fins end up completely black.

 

[SammoTD]

Thanks for all the advice! il bear that in mind and if anything goes pear shaped il buy a second female.

 

[FishBlast]

Thanks for all the advice! il bear that in mind and if anything goes pear shaped il buy a second female.

Sorry, couldn't resist when I saw pear-shaped.

Here's what to watch out for:
If the male always pecks the female and doesn't let her eat, that is somewhat a bad sign.
If they start showing off their fins (dorsal raised) and peck each other, very bad sign.
If you see that behavior, get another female, preferably two.

And I don't know the compatibility of cherry barbs with swordtails though, some expert in fish compatibility should tell.

 

[OldMan47]

A pair of swordtails may not be a problem at all. I have often bred single pairs of common livebearers like swordtails. the 2 or 3 to one ratio is often recommended because it means you should never need to take action from a male being too attentive to the female, not because it is really needed. If you have cherry barbs in with swordtails things will be fine but you will seldom ever see a fry.

 

[FishBlast]

A pair of swordtails may not be a problem at all. I have often bred single pairs of common livebearers like swordtails. the 2 or 3 to one ratio is often recommended because it means you should never need to take action from a male being too attentive to the female, not because it is really needed. If you have cherry barbs in with swordtails things will be fine but you will seldom ever see a fry.

It depends on their personalities, or at least it seems so.
I could keep some males together even with fewer females and they didn't harass them nor each other, but then I've had some red swordtail males who had no females and one killed the other.
Then there are these two, the male and female. At first the male got on her nerves, but then she put him to respect. Now they seem to be in friendly terms with each other.

Unless I add a rock. Then they start to bicker for half an hour to up to 1 hour to decide who gets to own the rock. The female always wins. She's so cute how she guards her claimed piece afterwards for a day or two. X))