Is My Female Pregnant Too Much?

[coyemuse]

so in my tank I have 5 female swords and one male. but only one of the females is ever pregnant. she gives birth consistently ever 6-7 weeks. the other 4 females have never dropped. and I have 3 female platys and 1 male. only one of them has ever dropped and it was only once. how can I tell if they are getting pregnant too often?

 

[coyemuse]

?

 

[leighton_87]

I don't understand the question - in what way could she be getting pregnant too often?

 

[coyemuse]

I was on the understanding that the reason for the m/ f ratio. is to give the females a bit of a break from the males. so that they don't stress so bad. I just want to know if I'm stressing her by not separating them

 

[leighton_87]

Ah ok - as far as I'm aware the stressing comes from the chasing rather than the being pregnant. I'm. My experience female livebearers are always pregnant so don't think they can get pregnant too often.

I'm confused as to why the others don't get pregnant - you are 100% sure they are females. My parents got sold juvenile swordtails which were supposed to be female but as they grew the sword tail grew showing they were male.

The other question is how old are they - are they sexually mature yet?

 

[coyemuse]

I have had 3 of the five female swords for a year now (they havent grown in size since ive had them, always been about 3.5 inches). and the other two are about 6 months old.