New Guy Needs Hwlp W/ Black Swordtail Fry

[Duff83]

well this is my first post, and i recently set up my tank about 10 days ago. we got all of our fish in and the female swords looked fatttttttt! but i knew nothing about it... figured they might be preggers but when about my day. today we went and got 3 ghost shrimp and a emerald cory cat fish... as i was releasing the shrimp and watching them i noticed something extremely small swim by... FRY!!! so i rushed to he store to get a filter for my 2 1/2 gal tank so i could siphon out the fry. in total i think we saw about 8... who knows how long they have been in there but they where no bigger than a grain of sushi rice. well in the time it took me to return from the store they disappeared. i could only find one, and im afraid the cat an my beta might be chomping on the. also, when the female gives birth, is it all at once or will she drop some tonight some tomorrow some in a day or two? how does this work? any and all info is great, i already read through all the stickies, but im looking for situation specific advice. thanks gang. yesterday i did clean the rocks w/ a vacuum... im worried i might have sucked up a majority of them, but the plant they seamed to favored i didn't vacuum near at all because i have bulbs in that area and i didn't want to disturb them.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Duff. A swordtail will drop all of her fry in a few hours. They are so small that a swordtail will have a very high count of fry in a drop, often over 60. Almost any fish in the tank will be eating fry if they can catch them, including the female swordtail. The same female that dropped your fry will do so again in about 4 weeks so if you missed the fry this time you will get another chance.

 

[Duff83]

the thing is i have hornwort (i think its called) and it grows rapidly and i also have an anubus and very large rocks. a bout the size of two coffee beans. and i noticed a few darting in and out of the rocks. i went digging through the rock to find more, but havent... i was lucky to catch the one i do have in the separate tank, just swimming along. do ya think the new cat i got today ate them all already, or should i get the female out and see if she drops more tonight?

 

[kizno1]

u have cycled ypu tank right?
and corys are shoalin fish you should have atleast 5
and is it a male or female betta

 

[Duff83]

u have cycled ypu tank right?
and corys are shoalin fish you should have atleast 5
and is it a male or female betta

male betta, the tank was in mid cycle, still a little hit on the nitrates but i added nutrafin cycle, and then two days later is when i found the fry.

as far as the cory goes, i dont want to over run the tank w/ fish i dont really want. i got it because i need something that wont devour my plants but eat the grime and crap left over on the substrate between vacuums.

 

[Duff83]

u have cycled ypu tank right?
and corys are shoalin fish you should have atleast 5
and is it a male or female betta

male betta, the tank was in mid cycle, still a little hit on the nitrates but i added nutrafin cycle, and then two days later is when i found the fry.

as far as the cory goes, i dont want to over run the tank w/ fish i dont really want. i got it because i need something that wont devour my plants but eat the grime and crap left over on the substrate between vacuums.

i just found a second fry under a rock and got him into the nursery tank! im happy. hope i find more. they cant all be eatten.

 

[kizno1]

you might want to watch out with the betta they can be ok in coumitty tanks but others like the 1 i had killed to guppies in its first night
and as long as your tanks planted you should find a few more i hade 12 guppy fry live i a 54l comunnity tank with guppie mollies platys and corys and i only saw 1 for about the first 4 days

 

[OldMan47]

A few comments. You are likely to find a few more fry but not too many. The hornwort will help the fry escape some predation but not as well as a clump of moss would. I have not seen cories eat fry but I suppose they would if they stumbled across one. No fish will eat fish wastes on the bottom of your tank, many will eat leftover food that you have because of overfeeding. As Kizno said, some bettas are rough on tankmates although I find mine are not much hazard to my fry if they have a few places to hide.

 

[Duff83]

A few comments. You are likely to find a few more fry but not too many. The hornwort will help the fry escape some predation but not as well as a clump of moss would. I have not seen cories eat fry but I suppose they would if they stumbled across one. No fish will eat fish wastes on the bottom of your tank, many will eat leftover food that you have because of overfeeding. As Kizno said, some bettas are rough on tankmates although I find mine are not much hazard to my fry if they have a few places to hide.

thank you for the help... i need to get ahold of some of this moss iv been hearing about. does it plant or is it free floating? i had to tie down my hornwort. id preffer to plant more plants then have them float.

 

[OldMan47]

Mosses can be tied to rocks, driftwood and other decor or just left loose in a tank. This picture is a clump that I had tied to a piece of driftwood when I first set up my guppy tank. Today it is much larger and more effective.

This clump fills at least half of a 10 gallon tank where my Heterandria formosa live and breed. You can see an adult Heterandria swimming in the top left corner of the picture.

You can often find mosses for sale on Aquabid for fairly cheap. Once you have a decent sized sample, you just wait a few months and you can become a supplier with the excess. Another alternative is to break a clump apart when it gets big, called pruning but its that easy, and put a piece in each tank where you want it. I have one tank where it does not survive because the fish in that tank are very large and very herbivorous. I have seen them completely consume a clump the size of my head in 3 or 4 days.

 

[Duff83]

Mosses can be tied to rocks, driftwood and other decor or just left loose in a tank. This picture is a clump that I had tied to a piece of driftwood when I first set up my guppy tank. Today it is much larger and more effective.

This clump fills at least half of a 10 gallon tank where my Heterandria formosa live and breed. You can see an adult Heterandria swimming in the top left corner of the picture.

You can often find mosses for sale on Aquabid for fairly cheap. Once you have a decent sized sample, you just wait a few months and you can become a supplier with the excess. Another alternative is to break a clump apart when it gets big, called pruning but its that easy, and put a piece in each tank where you want it. I have one tank where it does not survive because the fish in that tank are very large and very herbivorous. I have seen them completely consume a clump the size of my head in 3 or 4 days.

im fairly certain the two i found are all that will be found sadly... i think she litteraly had the babies when i was out running erinds, and i came back and saw what was left in the 8 or 9 i saw and when i left to get the breeder tank set up, the other 6 or 7 where goobled up. how ever i did find th second, the next day under a rock so i do look constantly.

my local aquarium store(fish specifically and exclusively) should have the moss, im going to get a hunk. itd be nice to be able to supply as well hell th rate my hornwort is growing i could supply that as well. its already 6x the size it was when i got it 8 days ago...