guppy and sword tail

Question
my golden swordtail & two gupppies are pregant what should i do? My three twin male guppies chase and bother my male swordtail the females were only added a few days ago.I have always only had males unitl then

Answer
Hi Rhonda,

I pulled your question out of the question pool.

All male livebearers will fight.  They live best in a 1 male to 2 female ratio.  Also, make sure your tank size is large enough for them to feel as if they have their own space.  Most swordtails get to be 5 inches in length so if you have 3 of those and 3 guppies you should have at least a 20-25 gallon tank.

It's very typical to buy female livebearers from the pet store already pregnant.  If they were at any time in a tank with a male, they're pregnant.  I thought I was so smart many years ago only buying females (because I wanted to avoid the endless fry explosion myself) and all males can be too aggressive with each other, but a year later my tank was so overrun and overstocked, it was awful.

As long as you have a male and female present they will mate and deliver every 30 days or so until the male dies.  If the livebearers are young, they will deliver 10-30 fry at a time, as they age, 60-80 at a time, every month.  If you only purchased females they can store sperm for up to 6 months.  So they too can still deliver every 30 days with no male present, for up to 6 motnhs so your dilemma isn't ending anytime soon unfortunately.  It will be no time before your tank is so packed with fish that unfortunately you will start to have water quality problems and may suffer fish loss.

I know you probably don't like the prospect of leaving them to be eaten, neither did I at first, and I jumped through fiery hoops at the beginning to save as many as I could.  After about 6 months I was so overrun with fry that as the mothers would deliver I would let the ones that could survive on their own do it, if not, I didn't feel bad because I knew saving them meant risking my healthy adult fish and my water quality.  

If you are very serious about saving them (and keeping your adult fish healthy and your main tank perfectly stocked) I would buy a separate fry tank (or 2) to raise them in.  This can be as simple and cheap as a clear plastic 20-30 gallon rubbermaid storage bin and use either a sponge filter or an undergravel filter system so that the fry don't get sucked up like they would in a regular filter.  You can feed them liquid food or Hikari's First Bites, both found at pet stores, 4-6 times daily.  I would change 25% of the water carefully every other day because of the excess feedings and the weak sponge (or undergravel) filtration and fry need perfect water to thrive.

The other problem you'll have is that they really shouldn't get pregnant themselves (the female fry) until they are at least a year old so this means you have to separate out the males from females (you won't be able to sex them until they are months and months old) in two separate fry tanks because they will try and mate before then and this can cause damage and even death to the females if they aren't old enough.  See now why I changed my view on saving them?  It's just a lot of work and very time consuming.  If you do set up the fry tanks, as long as your main tank is nitrogen cycled, you should use some gravel and plants and filter floss from the main tank to instantly cycle the fry tanks (they won't make it through the nitrogen cycling process).

As you see that another mother is about to deliver, she'll get big and round and look like she is about to explode and finally she'll look squared off from the side, you can place her into a fry tank to birth.  Chances are the fry from the month before will be older and bigger by then and she won't be able to eat them.  But as soon as you notice she has delivered her new batch put her back in the main tank because she will try and eat the newborn fry.

The fry can go in the main tank (if you have room) when they are about 2-3 months old and bigger than the adult's mouths.  They won't be able to be sold or given to a pet shop until they are closer to a year old.  You have to be really careful when selling them to private parties.  Be sure to ask about people's tank set up, is it nitrogen cycled, are the tank mates compatible, is it perfectly stocked and have room for these fish and get a pic of their tank to make sure they aren't cramming them into unsanitary breeder tanks or using them as feeder fish for sharks or other aggressive meat eating species.  Sorry, but I'm not letting my year of hard work cultivating these poor fish ending like that and I'm sure you feel the same.  Plus, because they are livebearers and cost about $2-$3 a piece at the pet store most people won't pay much for them.  The ones I have successfully re-homed I gave for free as long as I could verify they were going to a great tank.  Pet stores will usually take donations as long as your tank water tests perfect and the fish are healthy.

Good luck: ) April M.