Sick swordtail

[fr499y]

Any aquarium with plecos will need weekly water changes and possibly gravel/sand cleaning depending on how much flow gets to the substrate. They are messy fish.

Theres no such thing as stocking light if you have female swordtails as they will breed rapidly

[black ghost]

Do you have any recommendations on what to do so that I get away with fewer water changes?

Nope. Nothing replaces water changes. They remove nitrates and phosphates (not nitrites or ammonia, the filter removes those). They also replace KH (which gets used up) and trace minerals. This removal and replacement reduces stress, every time, and increases appetite and the production of growth hormones in the fish. Regular water changes are an essential part of fish maintenance.

Don’t ever change filter media. Clean it in tank water before the flow rate drops much, do large (50%) weekly, GH-adjusted and dechlorinated water changes, and don’t add any other chemicals, and you will have a stable balanced aquarium.

Be careful adding another plec. Different species don’t always get along, and same species, same sex, might not get along. Which species do you have already?

Adding more male Swords could be problematic, because they don’t really like each other. They’re all in competion for the women, and they can be very territorial towards each other. Usually, one will be dominant, and the others won’t really want to be there.

Yes the fish should be ‘ok’ left for two weeks. Water change before you go but don’t clean anything. They’ll find little bits of algae etc to sustain them.

And here’s another bit of bad news. 100 litres is not big enough for Swordtails. Females can grow to 6” and males over 4” (excluding the sword). I’ve had some at these sizes and they’re big fish, especially the females. A minimum of 250 litres, I would say, for the long term.

[Hsep]

Be careful adding another plec. Different species don’t always get along, and same species, same sex, might not get along. Which species do you have already?

The one in there is Ancistrus sp. Gold Longfin. I built the tank with him (not an appropriate pronoun as it is too young to sex) in my mind. Therefore I have included a lot of wood that either creates natural caves or already has caves in it. Setting territories should not be a large issue in my tank as the one in there seems to be living in one particular spot, hence, as long as they do not fight over that one spot it should be fine. Any recommendations about the species that would get along well are highly appreciated.

Adding more male Swords could be problematic, because they don’t really like each other. They’re all in competion for the women, and they can be very territorial towards each other. Usually, one will be dominant, and the others won’t really want to be there.

I am aware of this issue, I was hoping to solve this at least a little bit by getting two males from the same batch. However, as I am leaving, I did not want to buy fish but there was one male that was so beautiful that I could not resist. So this plan failed. But again, I tried to scape the aquarium such that the fish could hide from each other, hoping that it would solve this issue.

And here’s another bit of bad news. 100 litres is not big enough for Swordtails. Females can grow to 6” and males over 4” (excluding the sword). I’ve had some at these sizes and they’re big fish, especially the females. A minimum of 250 litres, I would say, for the long term.

This is not bad news. I am currently studying abroad and keeping fish was kinda an experiment that went well (one might argue about the meaning of well). Therefore, I really want to set up something bigger once I come back from Amsterdam. Getting a bigger aquarium right now was not an option as I will have to move all my stuff away in September. For this reason, I have decided to upgrade from the terrible 30l and get the 100l as it is a significant and reasonable improvement given the situation.

[black ghost]

Setting territories should not be a large issue in my tank as the one in there seems to be living in one particular spot, hence, as long as they do not fight over that one spot it should be fine.

This will change when you add another. Bristlenoses are usually pretty peaceful, as plecs go.

I was hoping to solve this at least a little bit by getting two males from the same batch.

This will make no difference at all.

[Hsep]

This will change when you add another. Bristlenoses are usually pretty peaceful, as plecs go.

So is your recommendation keep the stock as it is and not add another bristlenose and the second male?

[black ghost]

I’ve kept Swords a few times and, apart from the first couple of times when I didn’t know better, I’ve always kept just one male, with several females. The more females the better, because his advances, which can be pretty constant at times, are spread out so no one female gets too stressed. And they can give a bit back, if there’s a few of them.
Also, a single male will be very relaxed, knowing that all the females are his, as it were, and he doesn’t need to defend them against rival males. A lone rival male may be chased constantly. Fish are very simple. A fish that can’t leave is seen as a fish that’s refusing to leave…

Personally I wouldn’t add another BN till you know the gender of the one you have. I wouldn’t add one of the same sex. It can work, but not always.

[Hsep]

Since I bought the accurate testing kit, I have been curious about what the GH is in the 30l tank that I am still running with one bristlenose, two cories, two guppies and a swordtail that is two months old. The results are interesting. Can anyone please tell me how it is possible that in the 30l tank, I have a GH of 14, from the tap it is GM of 6 and the 100l has now after increasing the hardness GM of 8? I am getting too confused.

The 30l has two seyriu stones, one piece of honeycomb wood, java ferns, limnophilias and a bunch of crypts. The only clear difference I can see is the stone used since in the 100l I have used dragon stone. Is it possible that seyriu stone makes such a difference? Or do you have any other explanation?

To add further info about the 30l, the lighting is not set to fixed hours as in the 100l, i stopped adding liquid co2 a while ago, water changes are done once a week and a half to two weeks (I have not touched the filter in a while now), the base is aqua soil capped with small gravelish pebbles and I have been running air pump 24/7 but now I have moved her to the 100l. I have been using the same water when doing water changes and I am only doing water changes in the 30l when I am doing a water change in the 100l.

[fr499y]

The Seiryu stone buffers the water due to leaching calcium carbonates from the rock, the more you have the quicker/higher it will buffer so that explains that tank.

[black ghost]

Seiryu stone is ‘carbonated limestone’. It varies in its composition depending on where it’s originally from, and can raise KH, GH and pH if you use too much. 30 litres is obviously too small for those two rocks. Great rocks for Swordtails though, if you use the right amount.

[Hsep]

Great rocks for Swordtails though, if you use the right amount.

Looks like I should have scaped the 100l with seiryu instead of dragon stone, too late now