Aggressive male Swordtail

[Kelfel]

Hello I'm after some advice please. I've got a very calm and peaceful fish community, consisting of platys, guppys, neon tetras and dwarf gourami. I added 1 male and 2 female swordtail fish today. I've noticed that the male swordtail is being very aggressive towards all the other fish. Yes chasing and nipping at them all.

Is there anything I can do to stop this or help with this please?

Thanks in advance.

[Kelfel]

*He's

[BalloonMolly]

That's a shame - is it doing this without relent? How big is the tank?

I don't know whether it's common for Swordtails to be nippy or disruptive when settling in so I'm sure someone else can advise better.

[Kelfel]

Yes, constantly unfortunately. I've been observing him and he seems to be staying in one area of the tank, near the front. He has a juvenile swordtail female near him most of the time, he's not nipping or chasing her, however, if anything else comes near he's going crazy. I've noticed he's not going for the neon tetra either. Just the guppys, platys and dwarf gourami very odd. The tank is 180Ltr.

Thank you for commenting

[plankton]

Sounds like swordtail behaviour. They (and mollies) can be really grumpy with anything they don't agree with....
What are the dimensions of the 180l? They do better and are less aggressive the bigger area they have.

[angiemike6]

I have a 180L Juwel Aquarium Community tank with a variety of fish. I also had a male mature swordtail and a females, and all was peaceful for 2/3 years. Then for some reason the male started acting like yours by violently chasing all the other fish including much larger fish than he was. I cannot think of any reason he started acting like this, but when he didn't relent I had no option but to ask my local aquatic centre to rehouse him. The other fish were getting all stressed, and now the tank is back to normal.

[Kelfel]

Thanks for your replies.

The tank dimensions are 92 x 41 x 128cm with cabinet.

He seems more chilled and happier today. I'm wondering if he just found it VERY stressful moving from shop to my aquarium. I'll keep an eye and see how he goes

[plankton]

They may settle down as it's a 3' tank, but keep your eye on them.