Swordtail Birth

[noshybabs]

Has anyone sat an d watched it? how long does it take and what behaviour will the fish display?

I have a female who has been getting bigger for the last 5 weeks, and last night she started acting strangely. So i removed all the other sword tails from the tank and left her on her own

She took to periodically hiding in the grass and treading water and then frantically swimming up and down. A white dot appeared above her anal fin and seem to get bigger and them smaller?

During this time she also did 3 huuuuge poo's

At this point i had to go to bed, but when i got up this morning i cannot see any fry?? and she has what looks like a long tube coming out of where the white dot was?
And she has lost size??

Does this sound like the usual behavior? Im concerned as i have a sneaking suspicion she might not be pregnant at all and could have internal parasites

 

[vinylman]

Be patient; just because you can't see any fry doesn't mean there aren't any left. I saw two Swordtail fry in my tank when I kept them around 18 months ago. I'd taken the females out and passed them back to the shop, but saw nothing of any fry until around two weeks later. You'll see them when you're not looking for them. It's not beyond the bounds of possibilty that she ate them all, just depends how many she had.

 

[noshybabs]

Is all that stuff normal then?

 

[Maximumbob]

my swordtail female did a massive poo in the evening and gave birth that night. Have lots of the little blighters in my breeder tank now.