J_H - 2011-12-21 Hello, I have 2 female black swords. I was wondering if I put them in with my 3 orange male swords and 6 orange females will they breed or should I get a black male?
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nm123 - 2012-01-10 There is a good chance that they will cross breed but I would reccomend getting a black male swordtail
Katie - 2010-04-07 I have had a tank with Mollies and Platies set up for about five years. Of course they have bred well over the years and it has always been interesting to see what will come from them. A few months ago I started to notice that some of the younger males were sporting what looked like a swordtail. I have often seen these fish in the pet store, but I have never bought one. Is it possible that through their interbreeding they have created the swordtail? It's very difficult to tell if they are from the Mollies or the Platies.
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nm123 - 2011-11-11 Yes if one of the fish bred with a swordtail before you got it.
Joe - 2011-07-26 One of my female swordfish started having live bearers about 4 hours ago. How long should I keep the female in the breading net? She still seems to have blackness around her fin? I don't want her to start eating the young?
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Charlie Roche - 2011-07-26 As soon as you believe she has had all her young, pull her. Maybe having the young keeps her busy and as soon as she is done - hungry.
Mukman - 2010-07-11 Hi..I've got 2 questions.. (1)Do some female swordtails have a small "sword" at the end o their tails. (2)I have 5 swordtails, 2 red males, 2 red females and a black and white dotted male. I got to know that swordtails are peaceful fish. But my swordtails ripped the tail off 1 of my male guppy, almost killed my goldfishes and attack all my other fishes except my betta. Can you tell me why?
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Ian chow - 2011-01-24 Females do have swords and develop a gonopodium when they reach their full lifespan however. They never truly change sex.
CJ - 2011-04-02 Females do not develop gonopodiums. It's possible that what you thought were females are actually males that developped late. If it remains just a very small point then its probably a female but if it keeps growing you have males my friend. The same thing happened to me.
Anonymous - 2011-07-21 Your 2nd question is the one I can answer: IT'S BECAUSE YOU have more males and when that happends your male swordtails will display aggresion to other fishes in your tank to show dominance. Try ading 2 or more females in your tank.
Anonymous - 2011-07-21 Oh my first reply was not correct. It's suppose to be more male than female. I typed it wrong.
lulu - 2008-11-10 Can someone help me? Both of my swordtails are sitting at the bottom of the tank and will only move if I hit the tank. At first they wouldn't stop moving and now I don't know what's going on. Oh, and the rest of the fish are perfectly fine. If there's anyone with an answer, please comment back.
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victoria - 2010-03-14 I think you should check if they are spawning because female sword tails like to be really lazy when pregnant because they get really fat and weigh more when pregnant so they just sit around but still eat. But if they are not eating I could find out the problem.
Just comment me.
Paul R. Pedigo - 2010-07-10 Lulu, it's been my experience with them that they like to hang out at the bottom of the tank and school there. I have a ten gal. with a hybrid female swordtail, two female marigolds, and one male marigold along with a otto cat and four zebra danios. My swordtails like to hang out near the bottom in the plants. Hope this helps you out.
Mary Fernengel - 2011-05-25 I woke up this morning and can't find my female red velvet swordtail fish. The male is sitting at the bottom and wouldn't come up to eat.
Larry - 2009-11-08 Me and my gf are starting to breed various swordtails... before I do I had a couple questions before I proceed.
1.) is highfin and sailfin the same as I heard both talked about as very good looking 2.) Lyretail males can not reproduce, is that correct? (so I can go about it from the female side) 3.) black tails ie bluewagtail is that really cancer and probably a bad idea to try to do? 4.) cause I was thinkin a highfin lyretail with the blue black coloringw ould be, well amazing so is that a possibility for a healthy fish
anyone know those answers?
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Byron - 2010-06-19 1. a high fin or hi fin and sail fin (the term sail fin is mostly used on platies) are the same but variation is known to exist between sexes I have noticed females with hi fins keep their fins on top and not folded while on males because it is more elongated it flows down to their side. 2. lyertails cannot reproduce since it gets in the way of reproduction 3. no answer because I've seen blue wag platies only, I've never seen one with a sword but the platy I did see did not have cancer 4. As for your goal let us know how it goes I'm always interested to see how people create hi fins keep a good log on your progress
Melson - 2010-09-27 Highfin and sailfin are two different breeds. Any male who's got a long fin at the bottom...no the sword...cannot breed. They look beautiful but they are duds.
Tha IGz - 2010-10-10 Lyretails can breed with female fancy tail guppies..I have a tank full of them and are quite beautiful.
anthony - 2011-04-05 1.) Sailfin and hifin are one in the same. In the aquarium world there is many different trade names both for swordtail varieties - as such what one may perceive as say a brick red one might just say red or "orange" meanwhile it is indeed brick red. As such the sail-fin or hi-fin are one in the same just one person calls it sail fin where as the professional breeders call it hi-fin..well simpson hi-fin. 2.) Lyretail males are incapable to breed due to their overly long gonopodium so..to obtain lyre tailed offspring mate a lyre tail FEMALE to a NORMAL finned male..50% of the offspring will be lyretails. Just remember that when lyretail offspring are born right away they don't have the lyre fins till about 3 weeks old so keep all fry till at least 3 weeks old to determine how many lyres you got. Also remember that swords are not sexually mature till about 8 months of age up till then they all look like females. One reliable way to sex the fry around the 3 month mark is to look for the gravid spot, these are females as only females have it..provided the fish variety isn't a dark color..watch for the thickening leading edge to the anal fins around 4-6 month mark these are males as this will later be the gonopodium. 3.) Any wagtail variety is not melanomic, it's only melanomic if the black is on the body the more black the higher the chance of the fish getting it. Painted swords and black swordtails are the worst color varieties for developing the melanoma but not EVERY fish gets it, it's not infectious to other fishes and certainly not to man! 4.) Yes that would be an interesting color combo to take a few yrs to develop but if you succeed then I would certainly look to have the variety registered. A good way to start if you want a blue wag lyretail is to have a lyre female sword preferably green wild color. Mate her to a male blue wag platy. That way you have 50% lyretail hybrids, mate any that resemble the blue wag male back to the lyretail swordtail to create an almost pure swordtail once again and you have an almost pure blue wag lyre tail sword created from a similar closely related species. Remember swordtails and platies as well as swordtails and variatus platys easily crossbreed. (But always if you chose to mate variatus into swords you have to use a male variatus to a female sword..male swords have been proven not to inseminate variatus females BUT if you use a variatus male to a sword female then they will cross breed. It's a good way to end up with colors no one seen before and the male fry from that cross when raised to maturity develop cool little swords that are tiny and curved up like a hook lol very neat to see.
fish gal 1 - 2011-02-02 Hi I just finished establishing bio filtration with 1 female sword tail, I added a male flame dwarf gourami and she keeps biting them. If I add more swordtails will she calm down , or will they just join in and hurt the gouramis? Also if I add more gouramis will she back off?
I was thinking of breeding her but now I'm not sure will she just become more aggressive?
The most popular fish next to the Guppy is most certainly the Swordtail!
Hello, I have 2 female black swords. I was wondering if I put them in with my 3 orange male swords and 6 orange females will they breed or should I get a black male?
There is a good chance that they will cross breed but I would reccomend getting a black male swordtail
I have had a tank with Mollies and Platies set up for about five years. Of course they have bred well over the years and it has always been interesting to see what will come from them. A few months ago I started to notice that some of the younger males were sporting what looked like a swordtail. I have often seen these fish in the pet store, but I have never bought one. Is it possible that through their interbreeding they have created the swordtail? It's very difficult to tell if they are from the Mollies or the Platies.
Yes if one of the fish bred with a swordtail before you got it.
I'm about to buy some platies any advice please on breeding and caring?
just type in platy care on the internet
My male swordtail looks like hes going to Blow UP. He looks like a Turkey What happened?
Check out Fish Disease and Treatment on Animal World - look at bloat.
Can different types of swordtails interbreed with each other? I have 4 different types of swordtails?
Sword tails do cross breed and people do it. Let them enjoy who they love......
One of my female swordfish started having live bearers about 4 hours ago. How long should I keep the female in the breading net? She still seems to have blackness around her fin? I don't want her to start eating the young?
As soon as you believe she has had all her young, pull her. Maybe having the young keeps her busy and as soon as she is done - hungry.
Hi..I've got 2 questions..
(1)Do some female swordtails have a small "sword" at the end o their tails.
(2)I have 5 swordtails, 2 red males, 2 red females and a black and white dotted male. I got to know that swordtails are peaceful fish. But my swordtails ripped the tail off 1 of my male guppy, almost killed my goldfishes and attack all my other fishes except my betta. Can you tell me why?
Females do have swords and develop a gonopodium when they reach their full lifespan however. They never truly change sex.
Females do not develop gonopodiums. It's possible that what you thought were females are actually males that developped late. If it remains just a very small point then its probably a female but if it keeps growing you have males my friend. The same thing happened to me.
Your 2nd question is the one I can answer: IT'S BECAUSE YOU have more males and when that happends your male swordtails will display aggresion to other fishes in your tank to show dominance. Try ading 2 or more females in your tank.
Oh my first reply was not correct. It's suppose to be more male than female. I typed it wrong.
Can someone help me? Both of my swordtails are sitting at the bottom of the tank and will only move if I hit the tank. At first they wouldn't stop moving and now I don't know what's going on. Oh, and the rest of the fish are perfectly fine. If there's anyone with an answer, please comment back.
I think you should check if they are spawning because female sword tails like to be really lazy when pregnant because they get really fat and weigh more when pregnant so they just sit around but
still eat. But if they are not eating I could find out the problem.
Just comment me.
Lulu, it's been my experience with them that they like to hang out at the bottom of the tank and school there. I have a ten gal. with a hybrid female swordtail, two female marigolds, and one male marigold along with a otto cat and four zebra danios. My swordtails like to hang out near the bottom in the plants. Hope this helps you out.
I woke up this morning and can't find my female red velvet swordtail fish. The male is sitting at the bottom and wouldn't come up to eat.
Me and my gf are starting to breed various swordtails... before I do I had a couple questions before I proceed.
1.) is highfin and sailfin the same as I heard both talked about as very good looking
2.) Lyretail males can not reproduce, is that correct? (so I can go about it from the female side)
3.) black tails ie bluewagtail is that really cancer and probably a bad idea to try to do?
4.) cause I was thinkin a highfin lyretail with the blue black coloringw ould be, well amazing so is that a possibility for a healthy fish
anyone know those answers?
1. a high fin or hi fin and sail fin (the term sail fin is mostly used on platies) are the same but variation is known to exist between sexes I have noticed females with hi fins keep their fins on top and not folded while on males because it is more elongated it flows down to their side. 2. lyertails cannot reproduce since it gets in the way of reproduction 3. no answer because I've seen blue wag platies only, I've never seen one with a sword but the platy I did see did not have cancer 4. As for your goal let us know how it goes I'm always interested to see how people create hi fins keep a good log on your progress
Highfin and sailfin are two different breeds. Any male who's got a long fin at the bottom...no the sword...cannot breed. They look beautiful but they are duds.
Lyretails can breed with female fancy tail guppies..I have a tank full of them and are quite beautiful.
1.) Sailfin and hifin are one in the same. In the aquarium world there is many different trade names both for swordtail varieties - as such what one may perceive as say a brick red one might just say red or "orange" meanwhile it is indeed brick red. As such the sail-fin or hi-fin are one in the same just one person calls it sail fin where as the professional breeders call it hi-fin..well simpson hi-fin. 2.) Lyretail males are incapable to breed due to their overly long gonopodium so..to obtain lyre tailed offspring mate a lyre tail FEMALE to a NORMAL finned male..50% of the offspring will be lyretails. Just remember that when lyretail offspring are born right away they don't have the lyre fins till about 3 weeks old so keep all fry till at least 3 weeks old to determine how many lyres you got. Also remember that swords are not sexually mature till about 8 months of age up till then they all look like females. One reliable way to sex the fry around the 3 month mark is to look for the gravid spot, these are females as only females have it..provided the fish variety isn't a dark color..watch for the thickening leading edge to the anal fins around 4-6 month mark these are males as this will later be the gonopodium. 3.) Any wagtail variety is not melanomic, it's only melanomic if the black is on the body the more black the higher the chance of the fish getting it. Painted swords and black swordtails are the worst color varieties for developing the melanoma but not EVERY fish gets it, it's not infectious to other fishes and certainly not to man! 4.) Yes that would be an interesting color combo to take a few yrs to develop but if you succeed then I would certainly look to have the variety registered. A good way to start if you want a blue wag lyretail is to have a lyre female sword preferably green wild color. Mate her to a male blue wag platy. That way you have 50% lyretail hybrids, mate any that resemble the blue wag male back to the lyretail swordtail to create an almost pure swordtail once again and you have an almost pure blue wag lyre tail sword created from a similar closely related species. Remember swordtails and platies as well as swordtails and variatus platys easily crossbreed. (But always if you chose to mate variatus into swords you have to use a male variatus to a female sword..male swords have been proven not to inseminate variatus females BUT if you use a variatus male to a sword female then they will cross breed. It's a good way to end up with colors no one seen before and the male fry from that cross when raised to maturity develop cool little swords that are tiny and curved up like a hook lol very neat to see.
Hi I just finished establishing bio filtration with 1 female sword tail, I added a male flame dwarf gourami and she keeps biting them. If I add more swordtails will she calm down , or will they just join in and hurt the gouramis?
Also if I add more gouramis will she back off?
I was thinking of breeding her but now I'm not sure will she just become more aggressive?
btw I have them in a 24 gal tank.