Caring For Swordtail Fry?

[Mattatat]

After almost a year of trying, I finally have a baby swordtail about 1cm long , there may be more but after a lot of looking I can only see 1. It currently hides in an uprooted plant by the surface. I am visiting the LFS today to get Liquifry No3 Baby Plus Growth Food for it and I am wondering whether it is worth catching him and putting him in a breeding net, because I really want this fry to survive.
Also, I have heard that they are safe when they are larger than the largest fishes mouth, which is a swordtail: Is this from side on, in which case it is large enough or head on which it is not.
Just out of interest, I have two female swordtails, and one male koi swordtail. I thought the second female had died about two weeks ago, as I have not seen it, but the other female still looks very pregnant and the fry has an orangey hint, like the female I thought was dead. Is it possible that the still VERY pregnant female gave birth to him, like he just slipped out early or something?
Tank is 110 litres and moderately planted

Thanks for any replies

 

[OldMan47]

Get some cover for that tank. You should be over-run with fry if all you have in a tank that size is 2 or 3 swordtails adults. I use java moss as cover but najas grass/guppy grass works fine too. A nice big clump of any of those plants and you will soon not know what to do with all of the fry that survive. Your fry is too small to survive without either good cover or a breeder net. Special foods are not needed but can give slightly better growth rates.

 

[Kevin8688]

I would put him in a mash net, they cost about 8 dollars and they help a lot. I have one housing some fry myself for food I just buy a food called "First Bites" Its really cheap and its good for fry. Since swordtails give birth to live young he should be old enough to eat it as soon as he pops out .

If she was hiding that does sound like behavior a pregnant fish would do before she gives birth. The first time my platy gave birth I only managed to save a couple myself because the other fish started eating them as soon as they came out. Make sure when you see if the mouth is bigger than the fry you are accounting for when the fish opens his mouth all the way. They can open the mouth a little bigger than what it looks like when they have it closed.

Although, in the end you will have way more fry from where that came from. Platys, swordtails, and mollies are like the rabbits of the ocean world so they reproduces like crazy.

 

[Mattatat]

Thanks for the replies. I have decided to get some java moss and perhaps consider the net later.