Pet Fish Care

Swordtail
xiphophorus helleri

Cost: $5-19, the higher end Swordtails are ones with rarer colors and unique tail shapes.

Short Profile:
Swordtails are very hardy fish when cultivated, and are most often found in a community tank. Be warned that large individuals can become bullies over time, mainly males chasing other male swortails. There are many various combinations of colors and fin shapes available. With line-breeding being a specialist activity.

Origin:
Central America, Atlantic drainage from Veracruz, Mexico, south into Belize. Feral populations are spread throughout the world.

Size:
Excluding the sword, a male can get up to 3.1 inches (8 cm) and the females being larger at 4.7 inches (12 cm).

Sexual distinctions:
Males take quit some time to sex, but at a point the anal fin changes shape and forms a gonopodium. The easiest way to tell a male from a female is the male will have a swordlike extension on the lower part of the caudal fin. Sometimes this sword can be as long as the body.

Tank conditions:

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First the tank size should be at least 36 x 12 x 12 inches (90 x 30 x 30 cm).
Temperature 68-79 degrees Fahrenheit (20-26 Celsius). The water should have a reading of medium to medium-hard, and neutral to slightly alkaline. A Ph reading of 7-7.4. The water should be well aerated with some form of bubbler. The tank should have some plants with plenty of open swimming space. Don’t add decorations that will acidify the water such as bogwood. The swordtail prefers to swim in the middle of the tank.

Tank Mates:
Tank mates for the swordtail should be of “robust species.” Or if the species that it’s going to sharing a tank with should be able to at least stand up for itself. It’s just that the swordtail with use it’s size to push around smaller, weaker species. No real damage done.

Food:
Will eat just about anything, flake, frozen, and live foods are all good.

Behavior:
The swordtail is a very active and boisterous species, and behaves well when not the dominate species in the tank.

Breeding:
Will readily bread in a community tank, gives birth to live young that look like miniature versions of the parents. It’s been reported that larger females can give birth to 200 fry at a time.

There was a story that I a few years ago where there was a wild swordtail that someone put into their fish tank and it was around 7 inches in length and could give birth a few thousand fry at a time.
Just thought I would share that with you.

Here are what two common swordtails look like. The male has the longer tail.

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Well, guppies can take anywhere from 2-4 months to sexually mature. There are different factors involved that will impact the rate which they mature. Temperature, food, tank mates, etc. The temperature combined with food will have the greatest impact of all. The higher the temperature is at the faster the guppies metabolism is running. So if you give adequate food for the rate that the guppy can eat it, the faster the guppy will grow.

The tank mates also play a huge roll, if the young guppy is scared to get the food it will eat less, no matter what amount of food it’s offered. The temperature will have no impact on the young guppy other then it will feel very hungry. Now you may be saying well I bought a guppy that was younger then 2 months of age and without a male it gave birth. The guppy has a really neat way of making sure that no matter what its kind will continue to swim for eons to come. What the female does is she will store sperm for up to seven months inside of her. What she does it that when she feels it’s a good time to give birth she will use the stored sperm to fertilize her eggs. This way she will have readily available amounts of sperm for almost half her life span. To me that’s pretty incredible.

So here is the run down on when they mature.

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From birth to 1 month they are fry.
From 1 to 2 months they are juveniles, so teenagers,
And if all the conditions are right, the food is sufficient, and adequately nutrient, the guppy will be fully mature by the middle of the 3rd month.

Now there is a difference in the actual time from when a male is mature, and when he is able to reproduce.
So what I mean is a male can start to reproduce at the young age of 1 month. Now what that means is that if you have mature females in the tank with a 1 month old male that he is going to impregnate the female and you can quickly become overwhelmed with guppy fry. But if you are housing young males and young females together then you will be fine, a female can hold sperm from a male for up to 7 months, and she can hold it before she is mature enough to fertilize her eggs. And since females aren’t sexually mature as soon as the males are, they sexually mature around the 3 month period, you will not be over run by guppy fry.
Now fully matured guppies are just full grown and have all their color. That’s what takes place around 3 months.
Sexual maturity is different:
Males 1 month, and females 3 months.

Now I can get to the fun part, the adults. The next few videos are of adult male guppies. These are just a few of the different types of guppies you can get. Enjoy

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