Maintenance Technique of Swordtail Fish
Description: afraid of fading swordtails’ colors? This maintenance technique of swordtail fish will keep them colorful and brilliant.
Swordtail fish have a wide range of colors, depending on the breeding techniques and varieties. You need proper maintenance technique of swordtail fish to keep their brilliant colors. Here is what you need to know about swordtail’s colors and methods to keep them.
Swordtail’s Colors and How They Can Fade
Swordtails come in various colors depending on the varieties. The original species have olive green color with yellow and dark brown shades. However, the most popular domesticated fish have orange shades. Other varieties include tuxedo colors, “pineapple”, and black with blue spots.
Swordtail’s colors fade naturally after several years due to age. However, there are cases where the colors fade more quickly. Here are the common causes:
• Lack of light
Keeping the fish in a darkened tank without access to light (either natural or artificial) can reduce their scales’ brilliance.
• Acidic water
The most ideal water for swordtail is hard water that has pH of 7.0 to 8.4. If the acidity level is higher than 8.4, the colors will fade more easily.
• Not picking the right foods
Swordtails are omnivore and can eat a lot of things. However, foods with low protein and minerals can fade their brilliant colors.
If your swordtails’ colors fade more quickly than you expect, they may experience one or several of these conditions. Make sure to identify the causes before choosing the best methods to solve the problem.
How to Keep Swordtails’ Brilliant Colors
Here are things you can do to keep the swordtails’ brilliant colors and slow down the fading:
• Change water in the right interval
Once a week is an ideal time to replace the water in your aquarium. Less or more than that, and your swordtails’ colors can fade quicker.
• Keep the acidity level
Check your water regularly to ensure the balanced pH level and keep it slightly under 8, if possible. If you add driftwoods to an aquarium, make sure to cure them first to avoid contaminating the water by tannin.
• Provide enough light
Ideally, a swordtail’s aquarium should be placed in a well-lit place, with enough supply of natural light and warmth. However, if you do not have this place for your aquarium, use artificial UV light.
• Provide the right foods
When choosing fish pellets or foods, pick the ones that have high protein level (above 20 or 32 percent) and low fat. Preferably, choose fish foods that have “keeping the fish colors” or something similar in the label. You can also feed them frozen bloodworms or shrimp meat, without the shells and heads.
Swordtails’ colors are one of their charms. This maintenance technique of swordtail fish can help to keep their brilliant colors and to brighten your tank.
References:
https://fish.mongabay.com/diseases.htm
https://lovefishtank.com/swordtail-fish-keeping/