female swordtail.

fish keeper 87

fish keeper 87

AC Members
Oct 20, 2006
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i recently purchased some female swordtails, and i am under suspision that 1 of them is pregnant, how can i tell?

i have put the 1 i think is pregnant into a breeding net, so that if she is and does, then the babies wont get eaten was this the right thing to do?
 
depending on what color sword you have, it can be hard to tell...my sister has them and it is easy to tell because of the color (light orange). The spot near her anal fin, the gavid spot, will get darker the longer she is pregnant. This is because the dark spot is actually the fry's eyes inside...Hope it all works out well for you...
 
If you have a small tank and some plants (fake or real), you can put the female swordtail in there and toss in a ton of plants for hiding spots for the fry. It's less stressful that a small breeding net/floating breeder box.
 
my female deffo has the black spot near her anal fin, and she is getting ready to pop out some small fry. how long does it take for them to grow and show their colours?
 
If your female swordtail has been anywhere near a male in the last 6 months, she's preggers. If they are lyretail swords, the males are sterile, but otherwise if you bought her from a tank that had males in it she can have many batches of fry.
 
They can have a ton of babies. I have seen it where there are maybe 17 babies and then I have seen it where there are 40 babies all from the same batch. Also once the mom gives birth she is really not into taking care of them. She would rather eat them. I have seen it happen where she drops the fry and if they can't get away from her fast enough then she turns around and eats them straight away. Get her out of there as soon as she is done birthing or you will have no fry to speak of. Also you need to seperate her from other fish for a day or two so she can regain some of her strength again after giving birth.

Marinemom
 
atm, i have got her in a birthing net in the same tank with al of the oter fish, i admit, she is getting rather big, and looking as if she is about ready to pop. in my tank, i have a few places where she can hide when i take her out of the birthing net, would that be ok?
 
She will still be very vulnerable and easy to attack if she is in the same tank with the others. Do you have another established tank you can put her in where she will not be bothered? I realize that not everyone has this kind of setup so if you do not have another tank to put her in after birthing and you have to put her back in the main display, make sure that there are plenty of plants and hiding spots in there that she can retreat to if she feels the need to do so.

Marinemom
 
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