This may be a dumb question..but how do I NOT get swordtail fry? Platy w/ swords?

[dani_starr]

In all my fish keeping, I've never had swordtails, and now that I saw some AWESOME koi swords, I've decided I want some. I also want some blue mickeymouse and blue/black spotted platies. I was planning on 4 blue platies, and 3 swortails.

I was going to do 4 male platies, and 1 male 2 female swords, but had the following questions

1) Would the 4 male platies harass the female swords? I wanted males because they can't have babies and are generally prettier, but now that aqadvisor told me you can't because of inbreeding, is it a bad idea?

2) Is there anyway to make this work so I can have both the blue platies and the koi swords?

3) I DO NOT WANT FRY, but I really want this fish (I know, LIVE bearers..). I don't want to worry about rehoming fry, or fry getting sucked up in the filter, is there anyway to do this? Any fish that would eat all the fry before I notice they are born? All I have right now are the 2 gold female gouramis and my 7 cardinal tetras.

Thanks

 

[tolawdjk]

Fishy IUD?
Stern discussion about the importance of abstiance before marriage?
Free clinic in the java fern handing out condoms?

It's only going to happen if you only get boys or only get girls. Anything else and nature will do what nature does. You can't even guarentee that they will all get gobbled by tankmates, espcially if you are fairly heavily planted.

However, Koi swords can be a decent resell to an LFS or club auction. However, with mixing platys and swords, you are hard to make sure pure Koi's are what you will have....(ponders orange and blue Koi/Blue crosses).

 

[dani_starr]

.

Fishy IUD?
Stern discussion about the importance of abstiance before marriage?
Free clinic in the java fern handing out condoms?

It's only going to happen if you only get boys or only get girls. Anything else and nature will do what nature does. You can't even guarentee that they will all get gobbled by tankmates, espcially if you are fairly heavily planted.

However, Koi swords can be a decent resell to an LFS or club auction. However, with mixing platys and swords, you are hard to make sure pure Koi's are what you will have....(ponders orange and blue Koi/Blue crosses).

HAHAHAHA Omg that totally made my day!!! Lol. :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Well I thought that you couldn't have only male swords together or they would fight a ton?? I really am clueless when it comes to swords

Hmmm I kinda figured that would be an issue. Given that I want more plants.

My only thing is I would sell them if I could, but I am HORRIBLE about selling fish. I worry too much about their new home, if they will be fed the same, etc. Therefore, it takes me a couple months before I rehome any fish (happened with my platies). As for club auctions, those people would actually know how to care for fish, how would I find out if there are any clubs in the Fort collins Greeley area?

And I was wondering that too, how the babies would look. Blue orange kois would look AWESOME!! (potentially)

Is there anything bad that can happen from breeding the two other than not being pure?

 

[TL1000RSquid]

When buying live bearer females you have a 99.9% chance they are already preg when you bring them home. I bought 2 female platties out of a tanke of all female platties, I have platy fry. Gourami's might eat them, I have 2 dwarf gourami's in with the platties but they suck and don't seem to eat the fry. I see you have a 29 with a Betta if you put them in there he should take care of any fry.

 

[excuzzzeme]

You can always cull the fry and feed them off to a larger fish (which would mean another tank - YAY!) or send them to you LFS for free. I agree with the 99.9% likelihood of any females being pre-hit. You could make a livebearer chowder and feed it to that beautiful shepherd, a little fish oil might be good for his coat.

On the serious side, you could learn to ship them and sell thru here.

 

[dani_starr]

When buying live bearer females you have a 99.9% chance they are already preg when you bring them home. I bought 2 female platties out of a tanke of all female platties, I have platy fry. Gourami's might eat them, I have 2 dwarf gourami's in with the platties but they suck and don't seem to eat the fry. I see you have a 29 with a Betta if you put them in there he should take care of any fry.

Ya I had the same thing happen with my platies. All girls, all girl tank, 2 were preggers. And I didn't think that my betta would be a good fry eater, that's nice to know. If I were to get an angelfish, aren't they good fry eaters as well? (Considering putting one with my blood parrot cichlid since no where is carrying BP now :/)

 

[dani_starr]

You can always cull the fry and feed them off to a larger fish (which would mean another tank - YAY!) or send them to you LFS for free. I agree with the 99.9% likelihood of any females being pre-hit. You could make a livebearer chowder and feed it to that beautiful shepherd, a little fish oil might be good for his coat.

On the serious side, you could learn to ship them and sell thru here.

Haha I think my bf would KILL me if I got another tank. We have a 1 bedroom apt, on the 2nd floor. I tried to convince him we *need* a 75-90 gal oscar tank, he disagreed.
And thanks for the compliment on my shepherd. (We got her from an animal shelter as a lab/great pyranees mix when she was 7 months old..but more like White American Shepherd. She has the bell on because my cousin, twin sister, and I when were about 11 all had a dog show where the dogs had to "do barrels", "walk the plank" -turned into walk around the kiddie pool and eat the biscuit), and "dance" along with basic sit, down, stay. She won 3rd place with me Her name was Lina, she passed away a couple months ago at 10 years old (well we had to put her down, she couldn't walk anymore and was in A LOT of pain). The other dog we have, a german shepherd collie mix named Milo is 10 as well, and rambunctious and dorky as when he was a wee little pup. )

As for selling/shipping, are they actually fairly profitable? Is it hard to ship fish?

 

[tolawdjk]

"fairly" and "profitable" are highly subjective. I mean you can ask any of the various sellers here when they get back from thier French Riviera vacations, although I think a few of them have wifi in their Bentlys so they might be on now.

There are a couple LFS here in the Denver area that will buy fry occaisionally. It's not enough to put a down payment on a house, but I've managed to offset costs on necessities like Prime, food, heaters, etc. It would help if you kept to just one subset like Koi or Blue platys rather than a "mutt". I've also known people to pick up livebearer fry as feeders for other fish as when they are out of someone's tank they are generally better off then the feeders from the big box.

Colorado Aquarium Society has a twice a year auction in Arvada. I've sold fry there and even at auction rates can get .50 a head on average for them. Koi swords would probably bring more. Also an excellent place to find stuff you usually don't find without ordering online.

Shipping fish really isn't as scary as you think it might be. The key is to keep shipping time to a minimum to lower the build up of ammonia and to keep the water well oxygenated. Temp can also be an issue with shipping in the winter. Priority shipping will usually get you to your location safely, but express is also an option.

 

[TL1000RSquid]

Ya I had the same thing happen with my platies. All girls, all girl tank, 2 were preggers. And I didn't think that my betta would be a good fry eater, that's nice to know. If I were to get an angelfish, aren't they good fry eaters as well? (Considering putting one with my blood parrot cichlid since no where is carrying BP now :/)

My Betta's have always done a good job taking care of fry, I had a big Plakat that passed away a few weeks ago that was great at culling fry, I had bought 3 female mollies all were preg, 2 went in his tank and each had like 4 batches of fry he hunted them all down.

Angels should do the job too but if they're smaller quarter sized young ones probably not to effectively until they grow.

 

[allaboutfish]

Ya I had the same thing happen with my platies. All girls, all girl tank, 2 were preggers. And I didn't think that my betta would be a good fry eater, that's nice to know. If I were to get an angelfish, aren't they good fry eaters as well? (Considering putting one with my blood parrot cichlid since no where is carrying BP now :/)

i have a BP and he needs a good home