New little fry

[Elisabeth83]

I was doing a water change on my 60 gallon and ping a little whitish colored fry swam out A couple hours later I saw a black swordtail fry resting on a plant 15 mins later I found another little whitish fry.

My black swordy didn't even look pregnant...sure she was nice and full looking but definatly not big or squarish. She is quite slender now though The only other female who is pregnant (can see little eyes inside ) is my orange swordy. She couldn't possibly given birth to the little black swordy though It doesn't even look like she's ready to give birth....

I guess my male must be mating them or else they've stored the sperm from my older male who died months ago??

Ah well..I am very happy I was so shocked to find the little black swordy fry

 

[specks]

Congratulations on the discovery of your fry. When my sons red sword gave birth a few weeks ago we hadnt realised that she was pregnant. We ended up with 25, some were red & some were red/black. I am going to hi-jack some for my tank.

 

[Jswift254]

Congrats on the fry.My molly gave birth while I was at school yesterday and I can't find a single fry .Im trying to keep up hope that some weren't eaten and are just hiding.

 

[Polardbear]

Yay!!!

Glad to hear she's giving you more little ones! Sneaky little devils aren't they?

 

[Elisabeth83]

Well no more fry...I think it's very odd that lately whenever my swordies give birth I only find a couple and the girls arn't even big. Any ideas what's going on??

Polardbear - yes they sure are sneaky

 

[Polardbear]

You've had your girls for a while now haven't you? The first few times they had babies were the batches big? I'm only speculating, but, I wonder if when they are having batches from stored sperm if the batches get smaller with age...

One of my girls, Meri, is difficult to tell if she's pregnant or not. She doesn't blimp up like the other girls and you really have to look hard to see a very faint gravid spot. Her batches have always been small and I've never managed to get her to a maternity tank in time to actually save all of them. In fact, I've never managed to find more than 3 of hers in a tank from any pregnancy. She never gives me a hint that she's ready to have them, just kind of cruises over to the corner and has them and then goes on about her business. The other girls are much more obvious about it and keep me on edge for days before they drop (the little drama queens!).

You could mark down the date and in about 3 weeks from now start doing twice daily tank inspections for fry. Mine usually go 30 days between batches so if you started looking in 3 weeks that would give you a few days window in case they came early. I'm doing that now with my lyretail girls, it worked last month so hopefully it will again this time.

And speaking of surprise fry, I have two female marigold lyretails in a quarentine tank next to the fry tank with all the little black swordie fry. 3 days ago I was doing a water change for the babies and I glanced over at the Q.T. and discovered a little marigold fry cruising around in it! I've been watching the other tanks so closely for babies I didn't even think to check the new girls for babies! The marigold girls are so little I didn't even think they were pregnant but apparently so!