Are you raising a swordtail fry but having trouble providing the best for them? Do not worry; it’s natural for all new and old-time keepers. Swordtail fry care might seem easy, but it is way more complicated if you are new to it. To raise your swordtail fry into healthy adults, you need to take care of their water parameters, tank mates, and, most importantly, their diet. So, what do swordtail fry eat?
A properly balanced diet is vital for the fish’s growth and development. The food they require depends on what growth stage they are in. Swordtail fry in the wild will survive on mosquito larvae, brine shrimp, and some algae. However, pet fry needs more care, and you should feed them a mixture of commercial food like pellets, frozen food like bloodworms, and vegetables.
This blog post will discuss how to care for baby swordtail fry, their diet, and more. Keep reading!
What Do Swordtail Fry Eat In The Wild?
Swordtail Fish are omnivores which means they eat both plants and animals. In the wild, swordtail fry needs to take care of their own. They are free-swimming from birth and do not need parental supervision.
Swordtail fry will eat leaves, algae, seeds, and other small insects, eggs, and larvae found in the water.
What Does Swordtail Fry Eat In Aquarium Habitat?
It is best to provide your swordtail fry with a balanced diet that will also mimic what they eat in the wild. That way, they will develop into healthy adults in no time.
While feeding swordtail fry, you need to avoid low-quality food as it can cause diseases. Although swordtails are omnivores and do require a fair share of vegetable supplements, you should provide them live meat and protein as much as possible in the growing phases. However, it would help if you were careful while feeding them live beef, as they can transfer parasites to your swordtail fish.
Similarly, swordtail fish will also accept human food like egg yolk and other vegetables like squash, zucchini, pumpkin, etc. Apart from that, there is readily available commercial food like algae wafers, vegetable pellets, and wafers rich in nutrients that the swordtail fry requires for proper development.
Be careful to crush the food into small pieces before feeding them so that your baby fish can quickly eat them without dirtying the tank.
When Do Swordtail Fry begin To Eat Food?
Swordtail fry begin looking for food as soon as they are hatched. You can feed finely disintegrated flakes and newly born brine shrimp to them.
If you wish to accelerate the growth of swordtail fish, feed them a high-protein, high-fat diet. Vegetables, live or frozen food, and commercial flakes or pellets are all acceptable to swordtails.
To raise healthy and beautiful fish, feed them regularly and change the water frequently.
What Can You Feed Your Swordtail Fry?
Livebearer fish do not need special foods. Being omnivores and, on top of that, voracious eaters, they will eat whatever fits in their mouths. So that gives you various options f food sources you can choose from.
The various options, however, should be beneficial for swordtail fry. The types of food you can feed your swordtail fry are:
Live Food
Live food, such as daphnia (water fleas), brine shrimps, or micro worms, is one of the most excellent feeds for your new fish and is readily available from specialist supply providers. In addition, it has been discovered that when baby fish are given live food, they grow more quickly.
However, you must feed them at least three times a day to consume the micro worms as soon as they emerge from their cocoons, or they would die and pollute the tank.
Brine Shrimps (Baby Brine Shrimps)
Another excellent choice is brine shrimp, which you may purchase at your local pet store. However, they must be ‘gut loaded’ before being fed to the newborn fish, as they lack the necessary nutrition for young fry.
You should provide a vitamin and mineral supplement in the tank (you can get these from the same store).
One of the best foods to feed your newborn swordtail fish is brine shrimp. They are easy to chew, have soft bodies, and do not harm their guts when consumed.
Larvae of Mosquitoes
One of the most nutritious living foods for your swordtail fry discovered in stagnant water is mosquito larvae.
The main issue with this type of food is that you don’t want to introduce any diseases or parasites into your aquarium, so make sure you’re giving clean larvae to your baby fish.
Mosquito larvae can also be used as live meals, but only provided you have a separate tank where the mosquito larvae can be deposited once they have hatched. Another sort of live food that you should feed your newborn swordtail fish is micro worms.
Microworms
Microworms are a bit of white worm found in most kitchens and are a good option (you may need to ask at the store where you buy your fish food for some). They will gladly reproduce in damp kitchen rolls and provide a fantastic source of live food for your newborn fish.
Vinegar Eels
You may also give your fish vinegar eels, which are tiny worms that develop in vinegar, for an even more accessible live food supply (apple cider works particularly well). When giving this food to your fry, make sure the water is clean again, as it can quickly introduce sickness.
Daphnia
You can also give daphnia to your swordtail fish fry, which are tiny freshwater crustaceans that grow roughly 0.75cm (0.25 inches) long and dwell in the water. These can be found near slow-moving rivers with a lot of vegetation, beneath stones, or in foliage in the wild. They are easily found in fish stores, either live or frozen.
Egg Yolk
Egg yolk from the store, mashed with a fork, is another fantastic food source for your newborn fish. It would help if you kept in mind, though, that this form of a meal does not contain as much protein as live foods like daphnia or microworms, so you’ll need to make sure your fish are getting enough of them.
Vegetables
Swordtail fish will consume various leaf vegetables from plants such as water lettuce and duckweed in the wild, which you can provide them when feeding live food – make sure there are no chemicals in the tank.
Infusoria
Infusoria, which are tiny, free-swimming organisms found in stagnant water or even inside the guts of larger critters like shrimps and snails, are another fantastic source of food for your newborn fish. Place some leaves in a water container and allow them to rot down to make a ‘Homemade’ infusoria culture.
Commercial Food
Finally, you can purchase commercial food sources such as infusoria, brine shrimp, or microworms that include all the nutrients essential for your newborn fish. These are excellent since they eliminate any guesswork about what live meals to feed your fish and spare you the trouble of establishing an infusoria culture.
You can drop pellets, flakes, or tablets into the water to feed them. These are particularly convenient because they don’t require any additional feeding equipment. This will also prevent your newborn fish from going hungry if their parents eat all live food.
How Often Should You Feed Swordtail Fish Fry?
You should give the fry infusoria for two weeks before eating newly hatched baby brine shrimp or commercial fish pellets.
It would help if you gave them tiny amounts of food twice a day once they reach around an inch in length.
Adults do not require any additional vegetation in their meals; however, fry benefit from adding algae to their diet.
It would help if you fed small amounts of food to your fry at regular intervals throughout the day.
This will guarantee that they are getting enough nutrition at all times and will prevent them from becoming bloated or constipated, which can be fatal if left untreated.
Overfeeding your newborn swordtail fish will contaminate the water and make it harder for them (and any other residents) to breathe correctly.
What To Feed Swordtail Fish Fry When You Are Out Of Food?
The point is, you’ll never run out of swordtail fry. However, if you run out of pet fish food, don’t feed them anything you can obtain at home, such as chips or crackers.
Instead, you can give them a syringe full of boiled egg yolk or an infusoria tablet dissolved in tank water and fed to them.
You can feed them homemade items like boiling peas in the microwave or blanched spinach (but not too much!).
You mustn’t feed any of the items on this list to your newborn swordtail fish.
FAQs
Here are some related questions on swordtail fish fry.
Do Swordtail Fish Consume Their Fry?
The answer is YES if you have any adult swordtails. A female will begin to devour her fries.
She won’t do it on purpose, but she will. They can and, in most cases, will eat their fries! Cannibalism is more likely if you have more than one male in the tank, or even two females with fry, so keep an eye out.
What Are The Swordtail Fish Growth Stages?
Swordtail fish go through four different stages of development. The Fry Stage is weeks 1-4, the Juvenile Stage is weeks 4-12, the Young Stage is weeks 12-24, and the Adult Stage is weeks 24+.
Because each stage of swordtail fish has its own set of traits, it’s critical to know how to tell them apart so you can adequately care for them.
How Do You Take Care Of A Baby Swordtail Fish?
To ensure that their environment is healthy and conducive, you must maintain water parameters and make frequent changes.
You should provide them with a healthy diet. When they are young, it is critical to provide them with live food. Once they reach about an inch in size and exhibit their adult colors, you can feed them commercial pellets.
Conclusion
Finally, because newborn swordtail fish are so small, you should handle them carefully and feed them nutritious food.
Other fish fry is unaffected by them and will not consume them. However, you should monitor their water parameters to ensure that they become ill while still young.
A good diet is the first step in producing healthy adults. Next, you must feed your swordtail to fry the proper amount of food at the appropriate time for them to make attractive colors as they grow.
Feed them high-quality food and avoid overfeeding them out of affection.