Is My Swordtail Pregnant?

[DarrenEPB]

Yeah that is an issue, I have a small cube tank set up in another room that I let my babies grow in, keep them out of harms way, I have two angels in my tank so cant leave them in there even though I do have a good amount of live plants in my main tank. I would feel to guilty if I got up and they had been someone's dinner.

 

[FishBlast]

Yeah that is an issue, I have a small cube tank set up in another room that I let my babies grow in, keep them out of harms way, I have two angels in my tank so cant leave them in there even though I do have a good amount of live plants in my main tank. I would feel to guilty if I got up and they had been someone's dinner.

I used to grow fry in separate tanks before but I didn't have filters and changed water once every 3 days instead of daily. Oddly the fry grew faster than my current ones but I only fed them dry daphnia back then, not Tetramin Flakes. I used to lose half the fry probably due to ammonia poisoning. The rest that survived grew into guppy or swordtails, but I didn't have much luck keeping swordies alive past 3 cm length, as they always jumped out of the main tank (the last one jumped during a water change and I stepped on him, I cried for that little fishy...). As for the guppies, I've had 3 generations of them before the last generation had sterile females that never became pregnant. They all died as I didn't buy new fish often and never bought guppies anyway, I bred them from a few that a friend gave me.

 

[craftyfishlady]

Knife & Fork have 4 lovely new ladies in their lives! One is the same lovely deep orange that they are, 2 silvery ones with yellow ish markings and one silver & orange They have come from my local aquatic shop rather than a general pet store and are confirmed as definately females

Knife is frantic with excitement already Fork however is more intrigued by the new glowlight tetra companions - it is all rather funny to watch at the moment!!

I am very pleased with the new additions

Thanks again for the advice!

Kirsty
---XXX---

 

[FishBlast]

Knife & Fork have 4 lovely new ladies in their lives! One is the same lovely deep orange that they are, 2 silvery ones with yellow ish markings and one silver & orange They have come from my local aquatic shop rather than a general pet store and are confirmed as definately females

Knife is frantic with excitement already Fork however is more intrigued by the new glowlight tetra companions - it is all rather funny to watch at the moment!!

I am very pleased with the new additions

Thanks again for the advice!

Kirsty
---XXX---

Can you post pics of the new ladies? X) I like swordies a lot. So many varieties out there.
I'm still curious if my two black fry with red faces will get the metallic green-blue shine their father has on the body.
Also, I wonder if Pinky will stay pink or orange or just turn blood red like her mother.

 

[craftyfishlady]

I most definately will try to get some pics of the new additions I have become very fond of mollys and swordies

Kirsty
---XXX---

 

[FishBlast]

I most definately will try to get some pics of the new additions I have become very fond of mollys and swordies

Kirsty
---XXX---

I had two small black mollies when that friend of mine gave me a whole tank full of fish. They looked rather cool. But since I didn't know how to take care of them, they died during a summer when I left my dad in charge and he most likely overfed, and I didn't have a filter then either -.-

Nowadays, I can't keep mollies because my tank's probably not big enough to host a breeding colony of them. Not sure how good it will do for swordies either, but hoping it will work since it's a 3ft long tank with 76L. I'm trying to keep the population in control by only saving few fry, whatever survives that I have a duplicate of might end up given for free to someone if the shop doesn't take fish (they don't want to take fish because they don't want to quarantine -.-)

 

[craftyfishlady]

I got a few pics for you - put them on another thread

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/399765-for-fishblast-swordie-pics/

I currently have 3 tanks, 1 is around 20 litres with 3 mollies, a japanese fighter & an ancistrus, they do great in there

The main tank is 115 litres, home to 9 tetras, 3 similar to tetra but forgot their name! (silvery fish with glowing silvery blue eyes and a black dorsal fin), 6 swordies, 4 male guppies, a pair of marble mollies, 2 juvenile mollies from my 1st ever fry drop & an ancistrus. There is also a small hatchery in use, home to 11 molly fry at the moment.

The small tank is an unheated 14 litre tank with molly fry in at the moment, got 12 in there.

It keeps me occupied

Kirsty
---XXX---

 

[FishBlast]

I got a few pics for you - put them on another thread

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/399765-for-fishblast-swordie-pics/

I currently have 3 tanks, 1 is around 20 litres with 3 mollies, a japanese fighter & an ancistrus, they do great in there

The main tank is 115 litres, home to 9 tetras, 3 similar to tetra but forgot their name! (silvery fish with glowing silvery blue eyes and a black dorsal fin), 6 swordies, 4 male guppies, a pair of marble mollies, 2 juvenile mollies from my 1st ever fry drop & an ancistrus. There is also a small hatchery in use, home to 11 molly fry at the moment.

The small tank is an unheated 14 litre tank with molly fry in at the moment, got 12 in there.

It keeps me occupied

Kirsty
---XXX---

Do you really mean 20 liter tank? I've had a 23L and it was still too small for my hoplo and 2 swordtails that weren't adult sized.
What size are those mollies and the ancistrus? The ancistrus usually grows to 10-14 cm. They may be doing great now but at some point they might fight each other or something might go wrong with water quality.

 

[craftyfishlady]

The ancistrus is a juvenile between 1-2 inches. Mollies are 2 dalmatian and 1 black balloon one, assume they are full grown now, it's not a massive tank in size, not as small as my 14 litre, I'd say 20-25 litre.

Have had this set up established for 6-8 months now & successfully raised fry from the mollies too

Kirsty
---XXX---

 

[craftyfishlady]

Sad news - fork died tonight don't know what's happened but noticed my male Molly was harassing him terribly earlier next thing I know he's gone

Kirsty
---XXX---

 

[FishBlast]

Sad news - fork died tonight don't know what's happened but noticed my male Molly was harassing him terribly earlier next thing I know he's gone

Kirsty
---XXX---

RIP Fork...
Well, fish tend to harass the weaker ones. So I guess the molly knew he was dying so he chased Fork.

 

[craftyfishlady]

I did wonder if that may be the case, was no visible sign of illness so a bit odd, will be keeping a close watch over the tanks for a few days now.

Kirsty
---XXX---

 

[FishBlast]

I did wonder if that may be the case, was no visible sign of illness so a bit odd, will be keeping a close watch over the tanks for a few days now.

Kirsty
---XXX---

They see the signs faster than we see anyway.
I noticed it goes for fry too. The fry will bully the slow swimmers and usually they die.
My Ninja fry seems to be a good survivor as he's a slow swimmer, even tiny fry bully him, and yet he is still alive.