They sometimes did ok, but often don't do amazing. Not sure what makes the difference. I had 5 initially and they were breeding lots so I'd be selling 30 every couple of months. I reduced this down to about 4/5 in total, lost a female and I'm not sure what started happening to the fry, but the 3 I have remaining are 1 adult male and x2 that were grown on, hut the only single fry I managed to find/ save from x2 spawns. I went from spawns of 30, to sometimes not even finding 1. I even moved the females to zebra land where theoretically there were no predators, but I still got zero or max 1 fry (despite lots of moss, plants and not having to tear females in breeder boxes).plankton wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2024 8:45 am I didn't realise you had swordtails as well Si, do you get any problems with them because of your soft water?
They've done alright the last 2/3 years, but then weirdly just stopped doing well. I assume the rainbow fish ate the fry in the big tank. Not sure in zebra land? Too warm maybe.
I only have them as a family friend had a tank 2 miles up the road, just with sowrdtails and a lobster. They were the biggest, healthiest looking sword tails I've ever seen. Monsters! He gqve me a few to try. Can't remember if he adds stuff to the tank / substrate to harden the water or not.
Not sure if that ramble helped. They've done better than expected for a good few years. Now, I have x2 males and a fry, that's possibly male, so last of the line.
just keep them pics coming please and thank you. That biofilm powder you mention, would that be your ae bacter? Just in case i am missing out on something 
