Good dither fish for aggressive female swordtails?

[LDNMollies]

Two of my female swordtails are ganging up on the third. There has been no serious damage so far, but I have had to start feeding her separately because they are chasing her away from the food. They are all in a heavily planted 45g cube with 1 male swordtail and about two dozen Amano Shrimp.  I was thinking of doing zebra or giant danios, but I was wondering if anyone else had better ideas. I would prefer something that would leave my shrimp alone, but I'm open to any suggestions. 

Edited July 19, 2021 by LDNMollies

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Longfin zebras would distract the hell out of those swords! Seems very reasonable. 

[PineSong]

When I had a (single) giant danio, it was in a much longer tank and spent all of it's time racing back and forth. I thought it needed three times as much space and eventually went from a 30 to a 55 and I still felt like I was keeping a greyhound in a shoebox. He was also much larger than a swordtail. Your mileage may vary, especially as my fish lived alone, but I thought I'd mention it.

[LDNMollies]

On 7/19/2021 at 10:05 PM, PineSong said:

When I had a (single) giant danio, it was in a much longer tank and spent all of it's time racing back and forth. I thought it needed three times as much space and eventually went from a 30 to a 55 and I still felt like I was keeping a greyhound in a shoebox. He was also much larger than a swordtail. Your mileage may vary, especially as my fish lived alone, but I thought I'd mention it.

Yes, a giant danio would be insane in a 45g. I was actually meaning Blue Danios not Giant Danios, but I always get them mixed up.🤦‍♀️

[PineSong]

On 7/19/2021 at 11:15 PM, LDNMollies said:

Yes, a giant danio would be insane in a 45g. I was actually meaning Blue Danios not Giant Danios, but I always get them mixed up.🤦‍♀️

Ah, that makes sense. I was wondering whether I was mis-remembering my danio so looked on Youtube and I thought "Hmm, yup, that was him! Nonstop action and the size of a sardine, he'll turn a cube into a whirlpool"

[gardenman]

You might want to take a very close look at the two "female" swordtails who are harassing the female. They could be hidden males trying to spawn with her. Check for a gonopodium on them. When I have an aggressive female swordtail, it typically turns out to be a male who hasn't shown a tail yet. And I've got a lot of swordtails as the photo below will show. And that's just one of four tanks of them. 

[HH Morant]

So you like swordtails then?

[gardenman]

On 7/20/2021 at 11:58 AM, HH Morant said:

So you like swordtails then?

I started out with just seven and they've multiplied many, many times since then. They're pretty neat fish though. 

[LDNMollies]

On 7/20/2021 at 10:14 AM, gardenman said:

You might want to take a very close look at the two "female" swordtails who are harassing the female. They could be hidden males trying to spawn with her. Check for a gonopodium on them. When I have an aggressive female swordtail, it typically turns out to be a male who hasn't shown a tail yet. And I've got a lot of swordtails as the photo below will show. And that's just one of four tanks of them. 

The two aggressive ones are heavily pregnant. So, unless I missed a couple biology lessons, I think I'm safe on that account, but I am aware of the early/late maturing males.  😂

Your swords look great, though!