3 Fry---not Anymore :(

[TheSims3Dude]

I had my 4 fry in my breeder box, 3 one week old, and 1 four week old, somehow when I woke up this morning, there was my female swordtail thrashing about in the box with them!!!! I guess she jumped in there, the water level was close to the top, 2 babies got eaten and 1 died we took the swordtail out IMMEDIATELY! Now I only have 1 baby fry thats 3 weeks old! I hope it'll be ok, do you think its internal organs will be messed up from the female thrashing?? Omg!! What do I do to help the lil guy??

 

[HCpetraitis]

I'm so sorry. I hate when crazy things happen! The baby will probably be fine. As long as it wasn't stressed out too much.

 

[TheSims3Dude]

I dunno, it looks pretty scared, but it's moving around still....

 

[TheSims3Dude]

I just got home again and checked on it, it seems to be doing ok, hopefully it will be...

 

[OldMan47]

That is a real nightmare situation Sims Dude. A swordtail is a definite fry eating machine with strong predatory abilities. You can take some comfort with the fact that she didn't get them all, at least you saved a few.

 

[TheSims3Dude]

Ya, I have 1 still! So that's good!

 

[Bella]

I've had that happen twice now. .. once with a 2 month old molly jumping in the box with the new born babies and once with a full grown molly. but i don't think they ate any babies..

 

[OldMan47]

A molly is not the predatory fish that a swordtail is Bella. With a molly, you can often leave them with newborn fry and have this result. Picture taken day 33 after a drop by the female in the picture. I don't push my luck by allowing extra mollies in the tank even though they are often safe with their fry.

 

[TheSims3Dude]

No more casualties so far... yay!

 

[BlueGuppy]

Awww well I hope the little loner is still doing good. Keep us updated

 

[TheSims3Dude]

You told me to keep you updated so here it goes:
I've been keeping an eye on that lil guy that survived, it's about 5 weeks old now, its starting to get orange on it's top fin, just like the swordtails, (the one that attacked the babies) so I think that it might be it's own mother that did that to them, I hope not! I still can't tell how long till I'll be able to tell it's sex, it still looks like a female to me Any thoughts?

 

[OldMan47]

If it is a swordtail, it could easily be many months before you can sex it. I picked up some wild type swordtails last July and started to see a bit of a gonopodium on one and the elongated tail in January. When I got mine they were over 2 inches long already so I would guess at least 3 months. On a molly you can usually tell by about 3 months and on other livebearers it is often possible even sooner.

 

[TheSims3Dude]

Ahh, okies, thanks!

 

[TheSims3Dude]

The 1 lil guy is doing really well still, he's growing quite a bit still and he's now 5 weeks old,
I can't beleive it's been 5 weeks already! Like I said before, sadly the other 3 one week old guys died and got eaten, so I guess 'cause the other fry was 4 weeks old he was to big to get eaten...

P.S. The orange on his top fin is getting more orangy... (if I made any sense) lol

 

[HCpetraitis]

Wow thats great. I'm glad the little one made it through it! It sounds like hes gonna get pretty!