Swordtail in community tank ?'s

[shloken38]

Yes.....that definitely is a plus. The females are just as colorful as the males. Guppy females have some color but not much and endler females are plain, no color.

One more swordtail to look into is the red velvet. Very nice color and almost always available at the lfs.

[scotty b]

i have a few ,they tend to nip at mystery snails and the femails get nippy at the males when they dont leave them alone other then that they work well
side note i have some pure mayan swordtails and they get a wee bit territorial

[okapizebra]

Oh, I have experienced my swordtails nipping at mystery snails before too.

[scotty b]

mine are more twords the sword tail side rather then platy so that may have something to do with is idk

[hunterlook]

Originally Posted by okapizebra

There's a lot of cool swordtails out there. Here's a pic of one of my long finned lyre tails from a few years back don't mind the fake plants in the pic... this was from ages ago.

Ok so you sold me on the lyretails, I need to find these ASAP. Red velvets were my first choice, any idea where I can find the lyretails?

[ge2655]

I raised a group of koi swords in a 100 gallon planted aquarium and had them breed a few times. The males were absolutely ruthless to each other and very persistent towards the females about mating. I hadn't kept swordtails in a long time and had forgotten how aggressive the males were.

My group suffered from some defect that I still don't understand. The females would grow to adulthood, become pregnant, give birth and then stop eating, wither away and die.

Many of the koi swords I was able to get to adulthood were quite beautiful. Only one pair remain and she hides most of the time from the male, who is one horny fish.

Regards,
-Gary

[shloken38]

That's weird.....maybe it was that particular species? I only had one swordtail, and he was never aggressive. In fact, I think he was the one who kept the peace most of the time. He always chilled out and roamed the tank....the entire tank. He was like a patrol officer hahaha.

[okapizebra]

Originally Posted by hunterlook

Ok so you sold me on the lyretails, I need to find these ASAP. Red velvets were my first choice, any idea where I can find the lyretails?

They sell them on liveaquaria.com but after discovering them there I called my local petco and they ordered them in for me. Maybe one of your LFSs could get them in for you. If petco can get them in, I'm sure other places can.

[hunterlook]

Originally Posted by shloken38

That's weird.....maybe it was that particular species? I only had one swordtail, and he was never aggressive. In fact, I think he was the one who kept the peace most of the time. He always chilled out and roamed the tank....the entire tank. He was like a patrol officer hahaha.

Did he do alright alone? I was sure if they needed a group to hang with or if other species are sufficient enough to keep one company.

[shloken38]

Liveaquaria does have them, but they don't let you pick if I'm not mistaken. Just make sure you read the order page carefully before pulling the trigger.

My swordtail did fine on his own.

[okapizebra]

I'm sure it would also cost a ton more if you got them from there. That's why I tried my LFS first.

[shloken38]

No doubt. It's not worth paying that shipping for a fairly common, cheap fish.

[okapizebra]

I've heard great things about liveaquaria so no doubt they'll provide excellent quality. Shipping is just so expensive though.

[Art by Stef*]

Hunter, here are the best pics I could get of the suspicious guppy

Guppy is just passing juvie age, sword is the last of the pineapples and swords, a true male runt about 2 1/2 yo:



Notice the sword-like part of the guppy's lower tail developing? Hmm.



Also, when this gup was born, he was pure white and longer than his siblings.
We call him "Milky". I do not have this color guppy anywhere.

Guess when you live with each other, you might start looking alike
Cornwallis, the ryukin goldfish is starting to get a yellowish hue to his head also.



He is starting to look like the plants, even. Cornwallis and corn:



-Stef*

[hunterlook]

Originally Posted by shloken38

No doubt. It's not worth paying that shipping for a fairly common, cheap fish.

Yea I checked and the fish were $7 which is a bit much as is for swordtails then $35 in shipping on top of that! Dear god, I don't have bank rolls layin around, what are they thinking?