whats up with my swordtail?

[ilovemydragongoby]

my swordtail, which i think is a male, he hasnt grown his sword yet, and its not as plump as a female, so i'm pretty sure its a male. anyways, is darting around the tank, swimming up and down in the corner of the tank. he chases one of female guppies all around the tank, as well as the female swordtail.

i was thinking maybe i don't have enough swordtails in the tank. i had 5, but i lost 3...all of them were attacked over night (i think by the BB gobies) and lost their tails. so i only have 2 swordtails left, 1 male and 1 pregnant female. could it just because he doesnt have enough mates, or is there something wrong with him? he doesn't look dropsy at all and he eats lots. the little piggy lol

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

looking up some diseases...i read about something called fluke? is anyone firmiliar with this? could this be whats wrong with him?

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

can anyone help?

 

[mudraker]

One thing I can tell you is swordtails and guppies do not mix well in my experience. The swordtails tend to go after the guppies, especially if they are competing for the same sources of algae to nibble on. I don't know a lot about Gobies (never had any) but it is my understanding that they are aggresive. Neither swords nor guppies do well with agressive tank mates. It sounds like you may have very incompatible fish housed together.

Injured fish are suseptible to numreous bacterial and fungal infections, even in clean tanks.

I didn't stop to check out your tanks in your profile, but I do beleive you need to seperate the three species to start with.

When they are seperated and in tanks either alone or with compatible tank-mates you can make an assessment as the whether or not the fish are actually sick or need treatment at all.

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

well the gobies aren't aggressive. they normally are very peaceful...but territorial lol they normally swim away from the other fish if they aren't in their hiding spots. my dragon goby has never hurt any size fish, and i have 13 fry in the tank that are surviving.

as for the swordtails and guppies...i know lots of people who have them in the tank together...as well as mollies. seeing as how they are all from the same family. i thought they would be fine together. and one of my closest friends has all three together, for the past 3 years.

 

[Crepe]

Male swordtails may or may not develop swords. Do not worry. A better way to ID males is to look for a gonopodium.

 

[littlefish]

From my experience if i keep more than 2 swordtail mails they will start to fight and in the end one of them will die

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

well, i originally had 2 males and 3 females, which probably wasnt the best way to keep them. i lost the other male, who had a sword, about a week after i got them. then the female went a couple days later and then the other female went. like i said they all ad pieces of their tail missing.

but do you think if i added more females his darting around would stop? it's not all the time, just sometimes.

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

Male swordtails may or may not develop swords. Do not worry. A better way to ID males is to look for a gonopodium.

what's a gonopodium? lol

 

[littlefish]

what's a gonopodium? lol

gonopodium is called the sword from a mail's tail

 

[littlefish]

well, i originally had 2 males and 3 females, which probably wasnt the best way to keep them. i lost the other male, who had a sword, about a week after i got them. then the female went a couple days later and then the other female went. like i said they all ad pieces of their tail missing.

but do you think if i added more females his darting around would stop? it's not all the time, just sometimes.

no, 1 male with 3 females is good

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

so i need 2 more females thanks guys

 

[logansmomma1228]

Hmmm.... swordtails and guppies should do just fine together. In fact they even inter breed. I would suggest the F:M ratio like stated above, with species like that it is always the more females the better IMO. As far as the BB gobies I have a feeling that they are wreaking havoc in your tank lol. You might want to consider switching the more peaceful species out (guppies, swords) and putting them into a different tank.

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

ya, the only thing is this is the only tank they can go in...my 20gal is actually overstocked...well it could be if the bgk grows soon. i'm waiting on a larger tank for my bgk than i'll probably set up the 20gal with my barbs and guppies. i'll be selling alot of the guppies. we did another count last night 2 from the 1st batch survived, they are about 1/2 inch long, and 11 fry from the newest batch...we'll see how they do.