Swordtails

[Photoman]

Hi: I purchased 2 months ago a trio of swordtails. Beautiful fish from a breeder. The 2 females where pregnant. I put them in a tank separate from the male. One female dropped fry after a week. But after that no babies. The tank has floating plants as well as other planted ones. To have more babies should I put the male in? With guppies the female only needs to be pregnant once to produce a few batch of babies. Are swords like this? Thanks

[Diana]

I think swords are also like guppies, but given that she only had a couple of babies, perhaps she was pretty much out of sperm when she started developing those babies.

I would put the male in with the females. IME, in a well planted tank, quite a few babies will survive. If you do not want to risk it (adults eating the babies), then remove either the male of female when it is obvious she is pregnant. To move a pregnant female you can catch her with a net, but scoop her into a cup before exposing her to the air. Keep her fully supported in water during the move.

[Photoman]

Hi Diana, Sorry I took so long get back. I have the male with the females for 3 months. Nothing. I wonder if I should lower the temp of water when I do water changes? There is a lot of plants in the tank. If she had babies I should have some. What do you think?