It's Been Over 2 Months And Still No Drop.

[FishBlast]

Yet she looks fat for more than a month now.

Can't get a clear pic of her as she doesn't sit still. I still got to get rid of those water drop marks off the tank but I don't know with what.

 

[Joanne_]

How long over a month exactly ?
It's hard to tell without a clear picture, but sometimes they can hold on until 6 weeks before they drop !

EDIT: Oh, sorry just read your subject title again, you wrote 2 months.

 

[FishBlast]

How long over a month exactly ?
It's hard to tell without a clear picture, but sometimes they can hold on until 6 weeks before they drop !

EDIT: Oh, sorry just read your subject title again, you wrote 2 months.

I have her since January 16th along with the male in the pic. Both swordtails.
Her spot began showing since like the beginning of February and in March she was already starting to plump up. No drops so far and it might be her first too as she is small.

 

[FishBlast]

More pics of her, since I caught her foraging for food near the rocks. Probably the only time she sits somewhat still and does her funny "foraging swim" like a sparrow, followed by the male behind her.
She looks like she ate a basket ball.

I hate my blackberry's picture quality during the dark. X_X without flash it is too dark, with flash it messes up colors and shows reflections in the glass. Rather use Nokia next time...

 

[Joanne_]

I have to say, she is absolutely enormous and very 'square' shaped. I'm sure she will drop VERY soon !

 

[FishBlast]

I have to say, she is absolutely enormous and very 'square' shaped. I'm sure she will drop VERY soon !

That's what I thought for a month now. Sometimes I wonder if she's just eating too much (she's feasting on leaves from the plants and pretty much everything that falls on the floor - poop included if I don't catch it on time to net it out)
Oh, and she has this weird habit of either filtering sand (goes head in and does a bottom-dweller acting) or eats grains of sand every now and then. I rarely if ever see her or the male go to any other areas, they forage the sand all day while the catfish has taken the middle of the tank for roaming during the day.

 

[Joanne_]

Well, here is a picture of a platy that had another 2 weeks to go:

Perhaps it took a while before she started to become pregnant. One of my dalmatian mollies, I've had her for months with 2 males in the tank and she has only just become pregnant and is due in 1 - 2 weeks. The other female molly though has been pregnant a couple of times and the other one is still not pregnant.

 

[FishBlast]

Well, here is a picture of a platy that had another 2 weeks to go:

Perhaps it took a while before she started to become pregnant. One of my dalmatian mollies, I've had her for months with 2 males in the tank and she has only just become pregnant and is due in 1 - 2 weeks. The other female molly though has been pregnant a couple of times and the other one is still not pregnant.

That one is HUGE O.O bigger than mine.
At some point I wondered if it will just turn out to be male as she is too bossy, scares the male away and sometimes nips at the catfish, though they most of the time just hang out. The male did get his chance once though, saw it happen. LOL.

 

[LucyB]

Well, here is a picture of a platy that had another 2 weeks to go:

OMG You can even see her little ribs stretching round her ginormous belly!

 

[FishBlast]

Well, here is a picture of a platy that had another 2 weeks to go:

OMG You can even see her little ribs stretching round her ginormous belly!

I pity prolific species... Imagine how it would be like having 10-100 babies as a human. O_O Only someone who's been pregnant with 7 kids at a time can know close enough to compare...


Side note: I find platies cute because of that pointy beak X)

 

[LucyB]

Well, here is a picture of a platy that had another 2 weeks to go:

OMG You can even see her little ribs stretching round her ginormous belly!

I pity prolific species... Imagine how it would be like having 10-100 babies as a human. O_O Only someone who's been pregnant with 7 kids at a time can know close enough to compare...


Side note: I find platies cute because of that pointy beak X)

They are beautiful aren't they

 

[FishBlast]

Why in the world did she have to do it today? X_X
I wasn't ready at all, the tank was moved across the room, my catfish was pretending to be a pleco by hiding between a plant and the glass... and my female swordtail decided to drop.
The male ate pretty much everything except for the 5 I've saved and there was 1 black-purple one that hid inside the plant. Well, that one is no longer there now, at least I cannot see him.

Even worse though, they ended up in a 10L tub -.- Right now I'm extremely confused as to what to do. I have a bunch of fry and no more place for the 23L, cannot put them back in the 76L because the male is a freaking fry killer. He killed a lot and left them there, mutilated

The 5 saved ones are: 2 calicos, 1 completely white (including its eyes) and 2 pink ones. One of the 2 pink ones seems to have had his tail nipped off by the male So probably won't survive.
How long can I leave them in the tub though? It probably isn't best for fish, but I have no options until they grow a bit so that the male won't be able to fit them in his mouth.
And I'm not sure about the catfish, found 2 of these lying next to him but he did nothing. Still he could probably fit anything under 2 cm in his mouth if he wanted to.
A pic of some of them, the white one can barely be seen though, he's on the left and the pink one with tail missing is on the right:

I'll probably lose them though. Nothing I can do about it but I don't want to put them back in the main tank, saw too many left torn to pieces on the sand.
Bee's now slim too.

And the male had a feast -.- so after he had enough food, just resorted to killing the fry.

 

[LucyB]

Omg That is awful Can't say It hasn't happened to me in the past They always seem to have fry when we least expect it, or when we aren't ready Some people just let their females give birth in the main tank and some fry survive to adulthood, but I can't do that bacause I have Zebra Danios, they eat anything and everything floating around in the water Sorry that it happened, but no doubt you will get more fry! Can't you put the fry into the empty 23l tank? If not, can you go to your LFS and get a breeders net?

 

[FishBlast]

Omg That is awful Can't say It hasn't happened to me in the past They always seem to have fry when we least expect it, or when we aren't ready Some people just let their females give birth in the main tank and some fry survive to adulthood, but I can't do that bacause I have Zebra Danios, they eat anything and everything floating around in the water Sorry that it happened, but no doubt you will get more fry! Can't you put the fry into the empty 23l tank? If not, can you go to your LFS and get a breeders net?

I have 2 survivors in the plant in the main tank: a calico and a pink one that are very well hidden, but if they'll be as stupid as another pinky I saw earlier, they'll get eaten by the male. -.- The purple one looked so cool, but he's nowhere to be seen. I hope he's in the plant... he looked so cool Also, the 2 survivors in the plant seem to be males.

I wanted to put them in the 23L but mom's stupid vase is holding the spot -.- At least I can change water daily in the tub though. But I didn't dechlorinate the water they're in, it's from the bottle left outside for like 1-2 days I forgot how many. Should be safe though, haven't had problems so far.

Fry traps are smaller than my tub and I don't want to limit their space that much. Haven't seen any nets there and idk if I can get one any sooner. But would heavily planting their tub keep toxic substances low enough till the next water change? I could get some cabomba or what's it called and put it in their tub but not sure how soon.

It seems like I have 2 calico females, 1 albino female and 2 pink males in the tub. Not 100% sure, but the last time a swordtail had fry and I grew them, the bigger ones were female and the slimmer ones became males. Can't count for the hidden males though.

 

[Cazgar]

You could get one of those large storage boxes for them, with a sponge filter & heater they'd be ok until big enough to go in the main tank.
Also if your main tank is well planted they're very good at hiding