Swordtail In Labour?

[cjohnston]

I have a very heavily pregnant swordtail, I have just moved her from a normal tank to my birthing and baby tank as a molly was starting to chase her.

She is passing some orange/red stuff, is this normal and something to do with her about to give birth, or is it just poo gone weird

 

[Morquinn]

My guppy just did that, she basically aborted pregnancy because I put her in the birthing tank too late and she got really stressed. That may be what yours is doing.

 

[x-fish]

abortion that is not coool.

 

[cjohnston]

Agreed, not cool.

Couple of days later......

I can still see the fry inside her, does this mean she may not have aborted?

 

[donna123]

sorry to hear about the loss of fry.
my guess is she did abort this batch and the fry still inside are the next batch developing.
if you still wish to have fry from her can she stay in the birthing tank or is that one of those hang on the back of main tank ones?

 

[cjohnston]

Hi,
She is in a separate 20L tank with a few other mollie fry, will she be okay in there, I would love some swordtail fry as have had no luck with these so far, but would it be cruel to keep her in there??

 

[donna123]

Hi,
another option is to have some live bushy floating plants,
once the fry are born they tend to go to them, then you can cup theminto the next tank.
or move her in 2-3 weeks time, i hope you manage to save some next time, good luck Donna