Swordtails Breeding?

Question

How many do they have and what would be the approximite survival rate in a 20 gallon tank moderatly planted

I never asked how many I could have, and they get to four inches
Im asking how many will survive to adulthood in a 20 gallon moderatly planted tank with the parents still in there and possibly a few corys

i have 2 females, one male, very healthy, completly cycled tank

I dont want to seperate them cause I dont really want all the babies, but basically the survival of the fittest or else my tank will become os really fast. The 20 gallon will become a fry tank once a do get a bigger tank

In the tank there will only be the 2 females and one male and a few cories

Answer 1

They have 30-50 live (they don't lay eggs) babies every month or so.
Remove the parents and get a good fry (baby fish) food, and most of them should live.
Good luck

Answer 2

Swordtails are live bearers, the females will have 20-30 babies at at time (some types of swords have more) generally you want to have two or three females per a male, so the males aren't constantly harassing the females, and if you have more males than one, they won't feel like there aren't enough available mates.

Survival rate really depends on a bunch of things. Are you getting healthy fish from a good store? Is the tank already balanced biologically? Swords can live a few years, but unless you're getting them from a good store and know what you're doing, be prepared to see some of them die. If you're talking about how many fry will survive, that also depends on a lot of things. If you want as many to live as possible, you might want to think of putting up a plastic barrier so the adults don't have access to the fry, else the adults will munch them. With that much space though, and lots of plants, you can expect quite a few of the fry to survive, especially if you keep the adults well fed.

For breeding, you want a heater in the tank since they're tropical fish, and warmer water sets the mood, so to speak. Also make sure the water is balanced, don't dump a bunch of fish in at once, that makes the ammonia levels spike before the bacteria that eats the ammonia can catch up. Its best to start with one or two fish, then add a couple more at a time. Just remember, if you're planning on raising the fry then there's going to be a lot more fish in there than the original ones you've bought, so I wouldn't max out the fish to water capacity (one inch of fish per gallon of water) right away, leave plenty of space for the new fish to swim in.

Answer 3

It is hard to say for sure how many fry or babies your swordtail will have but there are usually a lot of them. Mine had 25 one time and about 18 another time. These babies will grow up quickly but you will definitley loose some of them. The parents sometimes will eat them. How many fish do you already have in the 20 gallon tank? I would say that you should only have about 10 swordtails in a 20 gallon tank for them to do well. If you want to keep the babies you could get another tank and keep them in that to watch them grow up. They will eat small flake food right away and plants or places to hide will help increase the survival rate. But watch out, the swordtails breed often and you could end up with a lot more than you think!

Answer 4

They can have quite a few anywhere from 5-15, I've seen. I used to work at petco so we'd have them breeding all the time. A lot of times the parents will eat them when they're tiny babies so it all depends how well they hide until they can grow large enough to defend themselves. The rule of thumb for how many fish per gallon of water is for every inch of adult full sized fish, allow one gallon of water. I'm pretty sure swordtails don't get bigger than about an inch or 1.5 inches so do the math...

Answer 5

One or two may survive, but if there is enough hiding places, you may have more.