I Found Baby Fish But I Don't Know Who They Belong To.

[lkpolovchik]

Hi, I am new to this forum. I have a 55 gallon tank in my familyroom. I have mostly Rainbows from India and Australia in it. I do, however, have two large Congo Tetras, some small Berry Tetras and one livebearer which is a green swordtail. It had a male but it died many months ago. I also had a male and female gold sailfin. The female didn't last long. The male was fine until about three months ago. Two months ago, a few days after I cleaned the tank, I found babies. There were two larger ones and six smaller ones. My son scooped them up into a little netted container that hung at the top of the tank. They ate fry food and did well for the next month, not one died to my amazement. I was also surprised when we found them swimming freely to notice that none of the fish was interested in eating them. You see we also have a catfish. Anyway, those 8 fish lived and I cleaned out the tank the next month. We decided they were getting too big for the little netted container so we released them into the tank once we saw they were eating flakes and little color nuggets. None of them ever got eaten by the larger fish, not even chased. About three days after the tank was cleaned and those babies were put into the larger tank, I found a very tiny baby fish swimming amongst the plastic plants in one corner. When I was moving the plastic plants to scoop up the baby into a net I noticed something and I didn't know what it was. I saw a small roundish blob that looked like a "lump of flour from gravy" sitting on one of the plastic leaves. I lost track of it when I was scooping up the newest baby and have never seen anything like it since then. That baby was put into the netted basket and lived until it found it's way out through a tiny hole in the bottom. I guess a rock that made it's way into the basket tore it. It's a month later, time to clean my tank and that baby is still swimming around amongst the plastic plants in the corner and the other babies have grown so big. They are all different sizes, which tells me they were not all born at the same time. They have the same colors as the swordtail, but they have grown so big that I can't believe they belong to her. Their fins don't exactly match her fins on the bottom of their little bodies. Their bellies are rounder underneath and she is more elongated and slender. They have personalities more like the Congo Tetras, meaning they swim around and do what they want with no fish bothering them ever. I haven't a clue which fish gave birth to these 9 fish. The male livebearer was gone long before the newest one could have been fertilized and they all appeared about 4 weeks apart, each time right after my tank was cleaned. I guess I will have to wait for a few more months to see who they look like. The only other time my swordtail had live babies it was like a food fight in the tank so I can't believe they belong to her. Any thoughts.

 

[The Equillibrium]

Livebearers can be fertilized by a male enogh to last or several broods. They store the spermatzoa.

 

[lkpolovchik]

That would mean the babies are a cross between the swordtale and the gold sailfin, because the male swordtale died at least six months ago. How long will it take for me to see either a sailfin or a swordtale on the males?

 

[xostrawberryox]

Post some pics if you can, will be interesting to see what they look like. Without that, i cant really tell. Was the female swordy looking pregnant and hiding etc? Otherwise looks like its down to the egg layers

 

[dwarfgourami]

That would mean the babies are a cross between the swordtale and the gold sailfin, because the male swordtale died at least six months ago. How long will it take for me to see either a sailfin or a swordtale on the males?

There should be no difficulty involved in a female swordtail storing sperm for 6 months. But swordtails and sailfins are not closely related enough to hybridise.

 

[lkpolovchik]

Thanks, I searched online yesterday and found out that a female swordtail can have broods up to a year from one fertilization by the male swordtale. Another words that poor girl can have a brood every 30 days for up to seven more months. We have the net basket ready since I cleaned the tank out yesterday morning. I usually find them a few days after a cleaning. She doesn't look as good as she did a few months ago and she is hiding a good bit of the time now. Geez, no wonder she killed him, LOL.