Swordtail

Swordtail is a type of freshwater aquarium fish which is considered one of the hardiest and easy to care for. It is a live bearer meaning that the fry is born as free swimmer and the fish is easily identifiable from its tail fin which extends like a sword and ends with a sharp point. However, this characteristic is only present in the male but not the female, which only has a round fin and also a thicker body. The average size of the fish is only about 2-3 inches long minus the tail fin while some can even grow up to 4 inches length.

The fish can be found in different colors ranging from yellow, orange, red and even black. Perhaps one of the most beautiful variants of the Swordtail is the bright-red colored species having a fierce look. This type is the most aggressive of all, as it will usually fight with each other especially during mating and competition for the females. There is also an albino variant with red colored eye, which is considered one of the rarest. Swordtail is generally not a preferred choice for a community tank due to its aggressive nature especially if there’s presence of other smaller fishes such as neon fish and guppies.

Swordtails are very tolerant to changes in water parameters and basically they can withstand and adapt easily to new aquarium environment with much better chances of survival. Wild Swordtails can be found in rivers from Central America but today it is also bred in colder climate areas and the temperature can be a low as 18degC compared to its cousin in the wild surviving in temperature as high as 28degC. It is also a good idea to get a large aquarium size due to its active nature and one of reason is also because it breeds easily and soon you will find that the whole aquarium will be overrun by this fish.