Category : PET
Name : Breeding Swordtail Fish
Description : Swordtail is one of the easiest aquarium fish to keep and to breed.
Type: Freshwater
Size: Up to 15cm (6″)
Difficulty Rating: Beginner
Breeding Difficulty: Easy
Temperature: 18-27°C (65-80°F)
Life span: 3-5 years
Water pH: 7.0 – 8.0
Water Hardness: Medium hard to hard (12 – 30 dGH)
Breeding Temperature : 23-28°C (74-82°F)
Breeding Tank : 75 lt (20 Gallons) equipped with sponge filter, heater, thermometer. It is better to consider the heating of whole room for bigger production sizes and more breeding tanks, instead of heating each tank. Instead of glass aquarium you may use plastic or similar pool type tanks like Asian producer’s concreate tanks.
Breeding Parent : 1 male to 3-4 females
Number of fry per Spawn : 20-200 (depends on size and age of female)
Breeding Efficiency: Females start to produce first offspring 8-12 months of age (they can start breeding as young as 3 months of age) and continue till 30-40 months of age. They can have spawn every month.
Gestation Period : Usually 28 days but can range from 24 to 30 all depending on the female, the amount of fry she is carrying and water temperature.
Process : Just keep parent on the breeding tank together and add some materials to protects fry from parents. There are some plastic accessories for protection of fry but professional producers prefer different methods to protect fry from parents like plastic separators, plastic mesh, plants or plastic ribbons.
After couple of weeks you may separate males and females. The females will have a dark spot on the abdomen called the gravid spot. The males have a pointed anal fin called a gonopodium. For the next breeding parents, better to keep males and females separately.
Feeding the Fry : Swordtail fry born as hungry, so better to begin feeding them shortly after birth. Their food must be small enough. You may feed with artemia, microworms and/or fine powdered flake foods.
The fry should be fed three to five times daily, amount must be just enough to consume all within 5 minutes. Never let excess food to stay on the tank.
Advantages – Disadvantages : Your main competitor will be big producers. Their cost for each fish will be lower than yours but you may use your low shipment cost advantages by staying closer to your local market.
Additional Advice : You may consider to breed different kinds of aquarium fishes to give better alternatives to your customers. Also you can cross breed different kind of swordtails to have different shapes and colors.
Additional Sources :
Swordtail Fish Care Tips Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdLxHXAiS4E
Breeding Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z2OUYzbc3Y
Care For Swordtail:
https://aquaticmag.com/freshwater/swordtails-fish-information/
