Swordtails-pregnant And Need Advice- Damsel In Distress!

[StaniFish]

Hey people, wondered if i could get some advice of breeding swordtails, 3 of my pregnant females which i bought were already pregnant and together from all of them i caught about 29 babies and put them into a net breeder, however one mother has died and my 2 females left i think are pregnant again as they have a large gravid spot, many of my babies died when they last had babies as they were born straight into the tank with the 3 females still around, i have been told that net breeders can stress the mums out if you start off with them in there, and they'll eat their young when their born so what should i do? it took me 2 hours to net out the babies that were born and i had to disturb the tank a lot, should i put the mums-to-be into the net breeder before they have the babies or has anybody else got any suggestions

 

[luque]

try posting this in the common livebearers forum

 

[uglybetty]

Hey people, wondered if i could get some advice of breeding swordtails, 3 of my pregnant females which i bought were already pregnant and together from all of them i caught about 29 babies and put them into a net breeder, however one mother has died and my 2 females left i think are pregnant again as they have a large gravid spot, many of my babies died when they last had babies as they were born straight into the tank with the 3 females still around, i have been told that net breeders can stress the mums out if you start off with them in there, and they'll eat their young when their born so what should i do? it took me 2 hours to net out the babies that were born and i had to disturb the tank a lot, should i put the mums-to-be into the net breeder before they have the babies or has anybody else got any suggestions

i have just (today/yesterday) gone through a similar situation to yours,but luckily the mother did not die and i have 55 baby sword tails.

my husband noticed the mother was sitting on the gravel in a dark area of the tank and put her in a plastic breeding tank that sticks to the side of the tank with suckers,the mother is in the top and the fry fall down a slit into the lower compartment where the mother cannot get at them.

we went to bed and in the morning checked the small breeding tank and low and behold 55 baby swordtails had arrived.

my husband remembered this situation from when he used to breed tropical fish 25 years ago.

he say`s he has never used a net breeder but some folks prefer them to plastic

hope this helps

 

[StaniFish]

Hey people, wondered if i could get some advice of breeding swordtails, 3 of my pregnant females which i bought were already pregnant and together from all of them i caught about 29 babies and put them into a net breeder, however one mother has died and my 2 females left i think are pregnant again as they have a large gravid spot, many of my babies died when they last had babies as they were born straight into the tank with the 3 females still around, i have been told that net breeders can stress the mums out if you start off with them in there, and they'll eat their young when their born so what should i do? it took me 2 hours to net out the babies that were born and i had to disturb the tank a lot, should i put the mums-to-be into the net breeder before they have the babies or has anybody else got any suggestions

i have just (today/yesterday) gone through a similar situation to yours,but luckily the mother did not die and i have 55 baby sword tails.

my husband noticed the mother was sitting on the gravel in a dark area of the tank and put her in a plastic breeding tank that sticks to the side of the tank with suckers,the mother is in the top and the fry fall down a slit into the lower compartment where the mother cannot get at them.

we went to bed and in the morning checked the small breeding tank and low and behold 55 baby swordtails had arrived.

my husband remembered this situation from when he used to breed tropical fish 25 years ago.

he say`s he has never used a net breeder but some folks prefer them to plastic

hope this helps

i have got a plastic breeder but it is the sort in which theres is only one main compartment, no smaller section for the fry however in my net breeder it has a plastic screen in which the babies should be able to get through but i don't want the females to abort the pregnancy and last time i had babies all of them died none of them survived to adulthood due to evil fish eating them so leaving them in the tank with others is not an option so maybe i should use the net breeder and thanks for your help on this topic