Cauliflower Swordtails not breeding?

[lewk]

I haven't gotten breeding from my Cauliflower Swordtails recently and I can't figure out why. I got small batches of fry in early April and early June, but haven't seen any babies since. I had small drops both times (around 10) so I added a plastic mesh fry cone and increased the hornwort in the tank since the last drop, thinking that would lead to greater fry survival. I also added a male from the first gen of fry as I had kept it 1 male 6 females previously. 

I do 25% WCs weekly, get no detectable nitrates thanks to the hornwort and pothos, and keep the tank around 74 degrees (i briefly went a little higher but didn't want to go higher than that with the scleromystax fry in breeder boxes). I have both a sponge and a box filter in the tank.

Any advice appreciated. 

[Fish Folk]

I had no fry when I kept a batch of Red Swordtails indoors. After being outside in a 40 gallon tub all summer, I have ca. 30-40 fry. I cannot say what triggered them. 

[nabokovfan87]

Same issue for me. I think mine is mostly food related at this point.

What foods are you using?

[GoofyGarra]

im having the same issue with my platies. Not swordtails but similar enough. I think for me its a food variety thing. That was a big change between getting fry and not getting any fry that would make the most sense. The only issue is food variety requires budget...

Edited September 5, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[TheSwissAquarist]

Try feeding a bit more, it may induce them to breed and give them less incentive to eat any potential fry. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I wonder if feeding a frozen food may help? When I feed frozen brine shrimp to tetras, they immediately begin mating dances. I wonder if swords would do the same.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

pH changes and keeping a consistent pH greater than 7.5-8 seems to get me the best yields in terms of the question of low numbers of fry. Crushed coral is your friend. I also think that the age of the fish matters. First drops are often small. Also found temperature mattered. When weather changes they’d get frisky but once it had been hot for awhile they stopped on me. Then when fall temp rolled in I’d get explosive numbers of fry.