This species cannot be confused with any other. Swordsman - a fish with an elongated lower part of the tail, resembling a sword. Actually, the name came from here. The natural, wild color of the fish is gray-green with a glow. Through the whole body (not excluding the head and tail) stretched a longitudinal strip of red. If you look closely, you can see longitudinal parallel stripes of the same color, and small dots on the dorsal fin. The back is greenish, the abdomen is slightly lighter and more silvery. And the sword, like that of a real knight, is “golden”: this part of the fin stands out more clearly: it is yellow.
Today, the swordsman is a fish with more diverse colors. Breeders were able to go far from the usual standard color, introducing red, black, striped-red-black (tiger), black and white, black and red-white, spotty, speckled. Bright color in both males and females. In addition, today, albeit rarely, one can meet swordsmen with two "swords" and even with a veil tail.
Dimorphism of the sexes is very pronounced: only the males have the xiphoid process . In addition, only males have a long and narrow anal fin.
Swordsman - a special fish. If the floor in most aquarium fish is laid already during fertilization, then in the swordsman it forms during growth and directly depends on the conditions in which fry grow. If the temperature is maintained at 30 ° C, 90% of the fry will have a male sex, and at 18 ° C this percentage will be in favor of the females. An active water reaction is also important: if pH = 6.2 (acidic environment), males will prevail, and at pH = 7.8, females will grow more.
The optimum temperature (24 ° C) and a neutral pH will give approximately the same number of males and females.
But that is not all. Sex change is possible even in adults. Females that have already bred offspring may have all the signs of a male, which can become a healthy producer by fertilizing the females.
In small aquariums, these fish rarely exceed 6 cm, but in aquariums with large volumes, some individuals reach 12 cm.
Aquarium fish Swordsman unpretentious and accessible even to beginner aquarists. It does not require large volumes of the aquarium (two to three liters per individual is enough, or 20 individuals per 100 liters). Swordfish are very beautiful in flocks (group content).
Swordsman - the fish is mobile and rather shy. Sometimes, frightened, jumps out of the water and may be on the floor. Therefore, it is better to cover the aquarium with coverslip.
Before settling the swordsmen in a new aquarium, it is necessary to withstand water for two to three days. If the water is chlorinated, the fish will quickly die. Subsequently, the water in the aquarium should be replaced: part of the old water is taken and the same part of clean (already settled) water is added.
The active reaction (pH) of water, its hardness and temperature are not of particular importance. The addition of salt to the water will be beneficial: one teaspoon will be enough for 10-12 liters of water. Salt must first be diluted and added to the aquarium already in the form of a solution. This procedure cannot be carried out if there are fish and algae in the aquarium. It is also advisable to add salted water.
Swordsman is an omnivorous fish. For feeding, live food (daphnia, cyclops, tubule, bloodworm, enchitreus, artemia salina), vegetable (duckweed, dandelion leaves, garden salad, white cabbage, spinach, cinnamon leaf) is suitable. Pounded oatmeal, dry daphnia and cyclops flakes, bread crumbs (white only) can be fed.
Viviparous fish (the female gives birth to ready-made fry capable of feeding on their own). Pretty peaceful (although sometimes I’m not averse to sorting out relationships and showing who is the boss in the aquarium). It gets along well with guppies, mollies, pecilli, barbs and other fish with similar conditions of detention.