Swordtail fish are a great addition to any home aquarium. They’re beautiful and fun to watch, but they can also be quite prolific breeders! If you notice that your swordtails have been giving birth more often than usual or if you’ve seen an increase in fry in the tank, it may be time to take some steps to control their population. In this article, we will discuss how often do swordtails reproduce?
Swordtails are a type of fish that can reproduce once per month in favorable conditions. Swordtail fish live in freshwater tanks and can give birth to babies at least once every month. The swordtail is well known for its prolific breeding habits, with females giving birth to an average of 50-100 fry each time they mate.
This article will discuss the reproduction process of the swordtail and how often do they reproduce. In particular, we’ll talk about the various ways of controlling their reproduction rate and how many fry a female swordtail has, and other interesting facts about them!
How Often Can Swordtails Give Birth?
Swordtails are prolific breeders and can have babies once every month in favorable conditions. Swordtail fish multiply in crazy numbers.
Once the female is pregnant, she can give birth to five groups of young at intervals of four or six weeks.
They can give birth every 30 days and the female swordtail fish is capable of producing up to 1000 fry in a lifetime.
How Many Fry Can A Female Swordtail Have?
The average number is about 50 to 100 live young in one spawning. However, the number can significantly vary. Some females can have more, some – less.
Likewise, sometimes delayed labor can result in swordtails spawning only 2-5 babies in intervals.
They usually spawn at least once a week during the warm season or when the water temperature is about 25°C (77°F). However, not all the fish will survive and become mature enough to spawn.
The number of other species in the swordtail’s habitat is important. If there are no natural predators, they will overpopulate quickly.
Why Do Swordtails Give Birth So Often?
This is because swordtail fish, unlike other species of tropical fish, give live birth rather than laying eggs.
The female swordtail fish can deliver up to 1000 babies in a lifetime. The gestation period for swordtails is only 24-48 hours, meaning they are born alive and not hatched from eggs.
The significant reasons why swordtail fish reproduce so often are explained below:
Faster Sexual Maturity
Swordtail fish are mature enough to breed at the age of 3 months. And so they start to reproduce from the period of three months to around two years old until they are capable.
Gives Live Birth
Swordtail fish do not lay eggs. So, fry is born alive. This is the main reason why they reproduce so often.
The survival rate for swordtails is much higher because the babies are born live rather than hatched from eggs. So up to 70% of the fry may survive.
No Need For Special Mating
Swordtail fish can breed with each other. This means they do not need exceptional mating to reproduce like some other species of fish require.
High Reproductive Rate Of Swordtails
Swordtail fish have a very high reproductive rate, meaning they can reproduce quickly with many babies per spawn time.
Short Gestation Period
Swordtails have a short gestation period. This means that the babies are born quickly after fertilization.
The gestation period lasts only about 28 days. After 28-32 days, they spawn out all the fry and are ready to conceive again.
Swordtail fish can survive for about 3-5 years. Thus, they can reproduce up to twenty times a year.
Superfetation
Superfetation is a condition in livebearers in which they are capable of storing sperm in their pouch. It enables them to fertilize internally and conceive babies even without a male.
This is important because it can help females produce more babies within a shorter period.
For example, if the female swordtail has one baby at 25 days old and then gets pregnant again but does not release her eggs for another 30 days, that would technically be superfetation.
How Many Times Does A Female Swordtail Give Birth?
The female swordtail can give birth up to 20-40 times every year. Therefore, it is common for them to have more than 200 offspring in their lifetime.
However, these numbers are not set in stone; some female swordtails might only reproduce once or twice per year, while others may produce many batches of young throughout the entire year.
Swordtails have a lot of babies, and they give birth all at once. The number is determined by the size of the swordtail’s tank and if other fish could eat the swordtail’s baby.
Swordtails are livebearers which means they have babies that are already developed. Some other types of fish lay eggs.
How Do You Know If Swordtail Is About To Give Birth?
The pregnancy of swordtail fish is marked by the inflammation of the gravid spot under the belly.
If the gravid spot darkens and turns square, you will know that your swordtail female is ready to deliver.
You will also know if she is about to reproduce by looking at the anus, which becomes swollen and turns red/pink.
When you see these symptoms come up on your fish, provide them with a separate breeding tank so that they can spawn in peace.
How To Care For Swordtail Fry?
The fry will swim around the tank for a few days, slowly getting more robust.
They should be fed egg yolk and infusoria until they can eat brine shrimp or microworms.
Make sure that you remove any dead fry from your aquarium every day so no rotting matter is left behind, which could harm the living baby fish.
As soon as they can eat microworms, you can start feeding them this food.
Similarly, add a lot of hiding spaces to ensure they don’t get eaten.
Maintain the water parameters of your swordtail fry tank precisely as you would for the adults.
In this way, you can take care of your swordtail fry.
However, sometimes your swordtail female will spontaneously spawn 100 live babies, and you are not ready for it. So, how do you control the swordtail population?
How To Control Swordtail Population?
Swordtails are great fish for beginners. They come in many different colors, and they can live comfortably with other species of guppies or platys.
However, if the swordtail population gets too large, it will start to eat away at your plants and algae in your tank. Their eating habits also contribute significantly to an overpopulation problem because they are constantly eating!
Here are some ways to control overpopulation:
Separate The Male And Female Swordtails
This is the most popular way of controlling the population in a fish tank. Male swordtails are smaller than females, and they do not have an anal fin, so it’s easy to tell them apart!
If you keep your male and female swordtails in separate tanks, they cannot mate or reproduce. This will significantly reduce their numbers over time.
Add Fry-Eating Fish To The Tank
Some fish can eat your fry before they reach maturity. These types of fish might be a better choice if you want to keep the swordtails in your tank, but you don’t care about raising their young!
If these other species start eating more of the fry than usual, then you will know it’s time for them to go.
Reduce Hiding Places For The Fry
If you have many plants in your tank, the swordtails might be using them to hide their fry. If this is happening, take some of those plants out so that they are easier for you to find!
Once all the baby fish are found and eaten by other species or removed from the tank, they will stop reproducing.
Give Them To Your Friends!
If you have an overpopulation problem, it might be good to give some of your swordtails away. They will provide hours upon hours of entertainment for the person that receives them!
However, before giving up all your fish, make sure they are disease-free and safe to introduce into another tank, so you aren’t passing around diseases to everyone you know.
FAQs
How Long Are Swordtail Pregnant For?
Swordtails are pregnant for around a month before giving birth.
The gestation period lasts until 28 days, and then they are ready to deliver.
How Long Does Swordtail Fry Live?
Most swordtails live until they are about three years old, but some live much longer!
Should You Separate Swordtail Fry?
If you are a serious breeder, you should consider separating swordtail fry. Please keep them in a separate tank or a breeding box until they’re juveniles.
However, if you were not expecting the babies, you could leave them in the primary tank and let nature do its work.
Conclusion
Swordtails are great fish for people just starting in the hobby, but they can get big and reproduce quickly.
Swordtails reproduce like crazy and can give birth to a thousand live fry in a lifetime. They can produce every 30 days and conceive soon after parturition.
If you keep male swordtails separate from females, then their numbers will go down over time without any extra work on your part!
However, if you want to control population growth with other methods like fry-eating fish, reduce hiding spaces, and give away the fish to friends, then it’s a good idea to be prepared!
