hey, my swordtails had a batch of 29 fry between them about 1 month-2 months ago and recently since my swordtails had babies again i put one of the fry into the breeding trap with the other batch of fry in 2 days 3 fry have died, they got weak and were swimming upside down and on their sides then later died, the water quality isn't brilliant but there was a bit of a scummy surface in the trap so i removed this but i dnt want to lose any more fry- what could of caused this?
Dying Fry
- Thread starter StaniFish
- Start date
Little-Fizz
Fish Fanatic
What do you feed your fry? Are you keeping them in the same tank as the adult swords? Water conditions aren't brilliant? ... That doesn't sound promising. If you feed liquid drops I would stop using that and do lots of water changes until the water is good. Fry are super sensitive to water conditions and if you want to keep them alive you have better stay on top of water changes.
i don't have a water tester so not sure of water quality in stats. they are all in a plastic breeding trap and there are 2 female and 1 male swordtail in the rest of the tank, i feed them on Liqui fry baby plus... i think it is swimbladder problems... 2 more fry have died now and i am beginning to get worried. should i do another water change and stop feeding them although i don't think i have over feeden them??
i don't have a water tester so not sure of water quality in stats. they are all in a plastic breeding trap and there are 2 female and 1 male swordtail in the rest of the tank, i feed them on Liqui fry baby plus... i think it is swimbladder problems... 2 more fry have died now and i am beginning to get worried. should i do another water change and stop feeding them although i don't think i have over feeden them??
i don't have a water tester so not sure of water quality in stats. they are all in a plastic breeding trap and there are 2 female and 1 male swordtail in the rest of the tank, i feed them on Liqui fry baby plus... i think it is swimbladder problems... 2 more fry have died now and i am beginning to get worried. should i do another water change and stop feeding them although i don't think i have over feeden them??
*Fishkies*
Fish Gatherer
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Do their bellies seem larger then they should be? I have had a few difficulties with deformed fry. Also try feeding them some finely crushed flakes they'll enjoy that too.
How often do you do water changes since you have fry now?
In the beginning when you first have fry sometimes a few may die because of problems that you may never know.
How often do you do water changes since you have fry now?
In the beginning when you first have fry sometimes a few may die because of problems that you may never know.
Little-Fizz
Fish Fanatic
I recommend getting an API liquid water tester. You really need to answer how big your tank is. It doesn't really matter if you are over feeding the fry, the liquid drops have yucky egg products in them that will pollute the water no matter what. Don't stop feeding them, just feed them different food. You should be doing daily... say 10-15% water changes until you have a water tester... Why don't you just take a sample to your fish store? I would get a tester no matter what though! I have a feeling you have bad water conditions. Fry are super sensitive to the water conditions. How do the adult fish look?
they seemed to have stopped dying a bit now, the male in the tank seems fine, the female in my net breeder seems ok but the other female seems to be hiding a bit although i think it is because of the male (they are all swordtails by the way, as are the fry) should be getting one soon hopefully but i am actually getting fresh water into the babies breeding trap by constantly lifting it up and letting it drop. Thanks for your help so far !
it's getting worse- they have started dying again, fish that were healthy yesterday started hanging around the bottom then just turning upside down and on their sides, the fish that die tend to be quite thin although my dad suggests i am over feeding them although i don't think i am, i think i am either underfeeding them or the water is bad-- i am so upset about more deaths now i feel like destroying the whole stupid tank!!! help please!
LauraFrog
Fish Gatherer
Livebearer fry do not do well on liquifry. It's too small for them. They are very well-developed and large at birth compared to the fry of most egglayers. I live in a tiny town and cannot get any live food for them at all except a few mosquito larvae, and there's so few of those that I have to circulate between tanks and they're lucky to get one batch of mozzie larvae every two weeks. They are all on good-quality (expensive) flake food and I lose almost none. If I were you I would stop feeding them liquifry (which they can't eat - they may well be underfed because they find it hard to eat such tiny food) and crush some flake for them.
I've had very good results on this formula:
1 heaped teaspoon of good quality flake food into a small container.
Enough water to make it into a wet slurry - about 15 ml does the trick.
Mix it with the tip of an eyedropper to break up the flakes, and then suck it in and out, pressing the tip of the eyedropper against the bottom of the container. This breaks the flakes up into tiny pieces.
They don't need much, a few drops two or three times a day would be enough.
Loads of people lose fish. Don't get disheartened about it. Sometimes it happens, a disease can storm through a whole tank and destroy every fish in it. It's normal for a few fry to die because livebearers go for quantity - not quality. They produce as many fry as possible. Wild livebearer populations are stable - that means an average of two fry per female from every brood in her entire life survive to breed. It's not a very high survival rate in the wild. If you lose this batch of fry, you might have better luck with the next lot. I've made a lot worse mistakes - I had one batch in a position where toilet deodoriser got into the water and killed the lot, and my cat knocked over a container with 14 fry in it, that was awful.
I've had very good results on this formula:
1 heaped teaspoon of good quality flake food into a small container.
Enough water to make it into a wet slurry - about 15 ml does the trick.
Mix it with the tip of an eyedropper to break up the flakes, and then suck it in and out, pressing the tip of the eyedropper against the bottom of the container. This breaks the flakes up into tiny pieces.
They don't need much, a few drops two or three times a day would be enough.
Loads of people lose fish. Don't get disheartened about it. Sometimes it happens, a disease can storm through a whole tank and destroy every fish in it. It's normal for a few fry to die because livebearers go for quantity - not quality. They produce as many fry as possible. Wild livebearer populations are stable - that means an average of two fry per female from every brood in her entire life survive to breed. It's not a very high survival rate in the wild. If you lose this batch of fry, you might have better luck with the next lot. I've made a lot worse mistakes - I had one batch in a position where toilet deodoriser got into the water and killed the lot, and my cat knocked over a container with 14 fry in it, that was awful.
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