catshanon Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 Hi people, I was told at BigAL's that female swordtails will die after giving birth, if not enough salts are present in the water. I had a male and 3 female swordtails and 1 day after doing a water change, 3 of the females died (the male is still alive) I had given some algae wafers to my plecos and the swordtails were munching on those. Could it have been the food or did they give birth and die? They didn't look pregnant and their behavior was normal. I had got them from Big AL's and they were on sale when I got them. Any thoughts will be helpful. Thanks in advance, Raj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qattarra Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 I know mollies need some salt , but this is the first I've heard of swordtails needing any . How long did you have them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatureNut Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 I'm no expert, but my swordtails popped out several batches of fry with no added salts, and they and their offspring have gone on to 2 other homes to continue, again with no salts... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catshanon Posted March 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 I had them for almost a month. After hearing their need for salt and the bad experience, I was thinking of not keeping swordtails anymore. Maybe the water chemistry changed after the water change and the tank was overstocked.. ( its a 25 G with 12 cardinals + 3 zebra danios + a pair of angels + the swordtails). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatureNut Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 Did you do water tests? If this just happened you should check for levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. It could be that something went out of whack that the other fish could cope with but the 3 that just gave birth couldn't deal with because they were already under stress. My swordies eat algae wafers all the time, by the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qattarra Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 A bit overstocked and probably stressed. Danios can be a problem . The angels can be bullies, esp. if breeding. Being cichlids they are not always compatible with the mild swords and neons. If you chose to no longer keep swords , I can trade something him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catshanon Posted March 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 This happened a week ago and I did a water test. They all came out to be okay. I use paper test strips for Nitrite, Nitrate, pH, Alkalinity and Hardness and someone suggested in the forum that these things are pretty useless. My ammonia kit is a drop bottle and should I get the same for the others? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qattarra Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 I use the drop test kits. I do have some strips but I don't trust them . IME, they read fairly well if your levels are quite high, IMO that's too late. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatureNut Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 I prefer the drop tests... they're cheaper and more accurate if used correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanker Posted March 8, 2008 Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 Swords are notorious for random sudden deaths as generally they have been over bred in the hobby to the point where their immune systems and general hardiness are completely shot to hell. Some people have great luck with them, most do not, however and it's certainly not through any fault of your's - it's just the fish have been bred to the point of semi-floating time bombs. I have previously purchased swords from the same retail outlet and at the risk of vendor review-ness I have to say that my experiences exactly matched yours. However, the fish I bought from other stores, or picked up at auction managed to mysteriously NOT die in random intervals in the same tank, at the same time... interesting... This whole salt-after-birth thing is 'less than the whole story'. I would actually call it 'a complete line of crap told to a consumer who bought yet another sword that died'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Chicklets Posted March 8, 2008 Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 I used to keep swords and breed them years ago. I had a good year and a half breeding out of them and never used salt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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