I'm about to have black swordtail babies!

[fishguy18]

Hey polar bear... I thought you would enjoy another one of my pictures

I just purchased a new swordtail mamma from my lfs....in fact i was trying to get someone to help me and everyone was busy.....so i took it upon myself to scoop her out and package her myself lol.....I knew that i would not have gotten her if one of the workers had to get it for me as they were all kids working today

She is extremely huge and i would not expect her to take any longer than a week to deliver.....she has the biggest gravid spot i have everseen.....and she was really pretty

Enjoy the photo

 

[Polardbear]

She's beautiful! Hope you get lots of babies. Thanks for sharing her picture! I love seeing everbodys swordies!

 

[Polardbear]

Well, no babies yet, but she's hiding a lot and not real hungry. I'm crossing my toes and fingers now. The longer she goes I figure the better the odds that Terrel is the daddy.

My BF gave me money yesterday to go buy my own valentines present - he said go get another fish or two! What a sweetie

I picked up 2 more pineapple girls to keep Leah company as well as a couple of bunches of hornwort to put in the 5 gallon maternity ward with Nicky.

I moved several plants from my 75 gallon to my 55 gallon to give the Lupe babies more cover. I have to say though, Lucy and Lupe the lyretails are not the brightest fish in the bunch! I made the corner where Lupes babies are hiding really dense, Lucy and Lupe keep squirming their way into the center and getting stuck! I walked past the tank and they were both in the center of the plants upside down and stuck. They had gotten themselves wedged in and couldn't go forward or backwards. I parted the plants for them and they rather sheepishly calmly swam out. I had to do this twice for them before they finally stopped getting stuck. Silly girls!

 

[WILDER]

Well, no babies yet, but she's hiding a lot and not real hungry. I'm crossing my toes and fingers now. The longer she goes I figure the better the odds that Terrel is the daddy

Good luck.

 

[Polardbear]

One can hope, can't they Wilder?

 

[WILDER]

Hope he is the daddy.

 

[fishguy18]

My female in the picture in page one had babies yesterday afternoon....30 fry in total and all of them seem to be doing fine

She is a really good mother and did not eat a single babie!...They were swimming right past her face and she just sat there and watched them

I finally got a clam swortail yay!

total count:

30 - Swordtail fry
36 - Platy fry
30 - Guppy fry!

Yay I am so happy that i had to buy a new tank to house them all!

 

[Polardbear]

Yay for good mommies! Good luck with them!

Nicky is still holding out on me but getting bigger. I wish she would just do it and get it over with. She's starting to stress me out!

 

[fishguy18]

I know the feeling lol

i dont know who gets stressed out more.....the mother fish or the owner lol....it seems like it takes forever sometimes

Good luck

 

[Polardbear]

Nicky threw a temper tantrum this afternoon. She was swimming up and down and up and down and when I'd go over to the tank she'd start swishing back and forth at me and opening and closing her mouth like she was yelling at me. (And no, she wasn't gasping for breath, she was mad!) So I gave in and moved her back to the main tank. She promptly located Terrel and swam a few loops around him and he has been planted at her side ever since. They were so cute. I was just turning out the lights and Nicky was resting inside a clump of hornwort and Terrel was faithfully hovering a few inches away. He's not trying to breed her or harassing her, just staying with her like a good little hubby. Maybe she wants him there holding her fin when she starts birthing!

 

[paulthegreat]

What a sweetheart Hope those fry come soon.

 

[WILDER]

You make me smile, hope she has them soon.

 

[fishguy18]

Thats the most interesting thing about breeding fish....you get to see the different behaviour and ho each "couple" get along so well together!

Cant wait for the post saying she finally gave birth!

My female swordtail who had the 20 some odd fry in now back in the main tank but she is standing straight up and does not seem to swim well and around the other fish....I hope she will start acting better once she gets used to her new home....she has been like this for 3 days now....I am getting a little worried...but i am stiff hopeful

 

[Polardbear]

Well she's still holding out on me but very subdued today. Terrel is right by her side, I wonder if he's coaching? Can you picture him saying "breath Nicky, now breath!"....

Actually, I'm a little concerned, everyone in all my tanks is acting rather subdued today. I'm wondering if it's because of the change in weather we're going through right now or if I just upset their routine today. Normally I do lights out around midnight and lights on about noon. Today I had to go to orientation for my new job so I left the house at 7:30 am and didn't get home until about 4:00 pm. I forgot to turn on their lights before I left (I'm not a morning person any more than they are!). I usually feed them when I turn on the lights and give them another light feeding just before lights out and they are always greedy little piglets. But when I fed them this afternoon no one seemed really interested in food except a couple of the juveniles. It's not just one tank either, both my large tanks, the quarentine tank and even the fry tank are acting very quiet. We've got a pretty good storm moving in though with lots of rain predicted so I'm wondering if this is having some effect on them. I think I might do a partial water change and see if that perks them up any.

Fishguy18 - I hope your girl is ok, it's got to be tough on them having so many babies month after month. My Lupe seemed a little more stressed for a few days after this last batch than normal but she's finally back to her old self. I think it helped that I moved some of the more aggressive males to the other tank.

 

[fishguy18]

Ok maybe I wil move a few of mine out of the tank

Thanks Polarbear