All female swordtails

[Jerilynne5903]

I bought 2 pregnant females and I had one male Swordtail in a 55 gal. I just moved over 10 baby swords ranging from 6 ish weeks to 2 ish weeks and it would appear they are all female, thus far that I can identify. Can I house all female swordtails as adults with out any problems? Why am I not getting any male baby fry? Can I house all male swordtails should I get any? Suggestions.

I also moved my male sword to another tank bcuz i do not want a 1000 swordtails and he wouldn't leave my 2 pregnant females alone. He glass surfed in the new tank for 2 days then he jumped out! I noticed he wasnt in the tank this morning and luckily I found him and I decided to put him back in the big tank and he started swimming! He appears to be ok, but not quite the same Pete, I know. Not sure how long he was out of the tank but he is eating and not glass surfing. That's a plus. Not sure what to do.

 

[Andy Sager]

Welcome to parenthood. lol
Here's a few things you need to know about swordtails:
* Swordtails ( as well as other livebearers) can hold sperm for some time so just because the male is not there does not mean your females won't have more fry.
* The gender of your fry can be determined by the temperature of the water so while it is possible to have all ( or mostly) one gender, it's not usual unless done deliberately.
* All swordtail fry ( as with all livebearers) appear to be females until they become sexually mature. This doesn't happen until approx 3 months of age +/-. At that point the male's anal fin will roll up and become the gonodpodium. Here's the thing with swordtails, males can hold back maturing. The first one to mature tends to hold the other males back from maturing so if you want to have more sword carrying males, you'll want to remove any males that mature until others step up.
* A tank full of female swordtails will fare better than a tank full of males. The males have a tendency to fight amongst themselves, worse if there are females present. In a mixed tank, you'll want to keep the ratio as 1 male for every 2-3 females.

I hope this helps