Swordtails are very nice and useful fish, although they eat a lot, and they help in tank cleaning in a way by eating algae. They are great algae eaters and could eat lots of vegetables too, so you don’t even need to keep snails with them to take care of all these because they are capable themselves. Swordtails are pigs when it comes to food, and this is why many argue that they are agents of tank/water pollution, despite their algae-eating ability. In this article, we are going to learn if Swordtails poop a lot or not.
Do Swordtails poop a lot? Swordtails eat a lot of food, and they also poop a lot.
There is no animal that doesn’t poop, for the fact they eat food, they must poop.
Pooping or defecation is a way by which animals release undigested foods from their body system.
So, it is a natural law that everything that eats must poop, or their body system will break down.
So, every animal will poop out almost the amount of the food they eat.
Swordtails being pigs when it comes to food do poop a lot because they eat a lot too, that is why they so cannibalize on their fry if they don’t have enough to eat.
There are some disadvantages of fish and other aquarium animals pooping a lot, they include hardening the water, easily contaminating and dirtying the water and tank, etc, so I quite agree with those that believe that swordtails do dirty tanks, instead of keeping them tidy as many people assume because they produce a lot of poop which dirty the water and could easily breed diseases.
How to Keep Swordtails Tank Clean
If you have this particular fish, or you are planning to keep them, hearing that they are agents of dirtiness, you might want to know how to keep your tank clean.
Swordtails tank needs to be properly cleaned up at least twice a week, and their water changed at least 50 percent, depending on how dirty you think it is.
You must put in place a filter to help keep the water in oIder so that it is not easily overwhelmed by dirtiness as a result of too many poops.
Again make sure that your tank is heavily planted. This is because live plants do help to absorb some dirt and also some toxins that might be produced as a result of the dirt.
How Often Should Swordtails Be Fed?
Knowing that they eat a lot and they produce a lot of poop, as a result, you might be wondering how often and how much they should be fed.
A Swordtail fish will only be healthy and okay if it feeds very well. Forgot about their level of pooping, if you have one, try as much as possible to feed it very well.
From my observation, feeding them heavily, and twice a day is very okay, but if the fish is with babies, then feed it 3 times a day, for her not to cannibalize on her offspring.
This is because naturally, they might not have time to feed on their babies once they are very okay with food.