Pisces68
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I've edited this to try & make it less confusing.
I bought 4 adult female swordtails from the pet shop (on xmas eve) & added them to my aquarium which already had a male fighter, 2 corydoras, a sucking catfish, 6 neon tetras & a bristlenose. The following day I found 5 babies swimming around my tank I'm not sure if the babies were in the bag of water that the swordtails came home in from the pet shop, or one of the swordtails gave birth within the 24 hours they were in my tank. I took the babies out & put them in a smaller tank, as I assumed they might be eaten. One baby died at 3 weeks old, the 4 left are about 5 weeks now. From the beginning the white one was twice the size of the other 3 bronze ones, but over the last 2 weeks or so the 3 bronze ones have had a big growth spurt & they're all the same size now, just under an inch. The white one looks like a swordtail to me, it has the flat fan like tail, but the bronze ones have different looking tails, they have like 3 little fins on their tail, so I'm thinking they're not swordtails. Like I said, I think maybe they came in the scooped up bag of water from the pet shop. The pet shop had 2 or 3 varieties of fish in the same tank that got along together so maybe there was fry in their tank already when I bought the swordtail adults & they may well be some sort of molly. I just don't know I'm guessing!! Now I just want to know
1. what type of fish I have
2. what sex they are - or how & when I can tell the sex so I don't get a whole pile of unplanned babies.
3. Do swordtails & mollys breed together or only with their own kind? I can keep 2 tanks going so can separate males & females. I know they can breed at 3 months & females can give birth every month.
4. Can you keep several males together or do they fight?
I bought 4 adult female swordtails from the pet shop (on xmas eve) & added them to my aquarium which already had a male fighter, 2 corydoras, a sucking catfish, 6 neon tetras & a bristlenose. The following day I found 5 babies swimming around my tank I'm not sure if the babies were in the bag of water that the swordtails came home in from the pet shop, or one of the swordtails gave birth within the 24 hours they were in my tank. I took the babies out & put them in a smaller tank, as I assumed they might be eaten. One baby died at 3 weeks old, the 4 left are about 5 weeks now. From the beginning the white one was twice the size of the other 3 bronze ones, but over the last 2 weeks or so the 3 bronze ones have had a big growth spurt & they're all the same size now, just under an inch. The white one looks like a swordtail to me, it has the flat fan like tail, but the bronze ones have different looking tails, they have like 3 little fins on their tail, so I'm thinking they're not swordtails. Like I said, I think maybe they came in the scooped up bag of water from the pet shop. The pet shop had 2 or 3 varieties of fish in the same tank that got along together so maybe there was fry in their tank already when I bought the swordtail adults & they may well be some sort of molly. I just don't know I'm guessing!! Now I just want to know
1. what type of fish I have
2. what sex they are - or how & when I can tell the sex so I don't get a whole pile of unplanned babies.
3. Do swordtails & mollys breed together or only with their own kind? I can keep 2 tanks going so can separate males & females. I know they can breed at 3 months & females can give birth every month.
4. Can you keep several males together or do they fight?
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