Swordtails

[dnn3]

our pretty little female just gave birth 2 weeks ago and she looks pregnant again, it was her first time giving birth and she only had 5, how often do they give birth?

 

[OldMan47]

It can be as often as once a month. It depends on tank temperature. At higher temperatures maybe once a month. If you run your tank at the cool end of their tolerance it would be more like 5 or even 6 weeks.

 

[dnn3]

thanks.how many frye do they usally have ?

 

[Thomas 2507]

Usually the number of fry a livebearer has increases each time they give birth so it can be anywhere between 10 and 100. It depends on many factors such as water temperature.

 

[LauraFrog]

The normal for a platy is about 20, a swordtail might have more as they are often bigger. The fry production goes up as they reach prime breeding and then levels off and possibly stops altogether once they are old. Some females stop producing female hormones to the point that they actually start to develop a sword and gonopodium, but they don't become male, just less female.

 

[dnn3]

we keep our tank at 75 degrees.we have dalmation molly that gives birth on a regular basis and we keep it there for her.

 

[5teady_2012]

our pretty little female just gave birth 2 weeks ago and she looks pregnant again, it was her first time giving birth and she only had 5, how often do they give birth?

Like most liveberaers they give birth every 4-6 weeks, the more times they give birth, the higher the amouny of fry you will get

Swordtails (adults) can have anywhere from 1-150 fry

 

[dunchp]

Actually the gestation period for any species of fish will depend on many factors including temperature, lighting levels, nutrition etc etc and no matter how much we try to copy someone else's set up these factors will be different from one tank to another. The only way to properly establish what the gestation period for any fish is, in your set up is to record the date of the births. I keep a diary for this purpose and I record each and every brood. This gives me the opportunity to establish the gestation periods for myself.

With Poeciliids, such as swordtails, they have multiple broods from any fertlisation and they will be gravid more often than not. Therefore, the availability of a male will often not affect the gestation period.

4 - 6 weeks is a good guestimate.

 

[5teady_2012]

record the date of the births. I keep a diary for this purpose and I record each and every brood. This gives me the opportunity to establish the gestation periods for myself.

4 - 6 weeks is a good guestimate.

This is exaclty what i do with my fish (well the ones i want the fry off) - however the only downfall to this is if you have hundreds of livebearers lol.. i have so many now that my folder takes hours to look through to find the right fish, date, due day, etc

On a serious note though Dunchp is right, its a good thing to do

 

[BlackSwords11]

They have fry about once a month. Swords,in my opinion, are harder to breed. I can't seem to get mine to mate. They will have as little as one, and as many as 100.

 

[dnn3]

we really weren't expecting them to give birth we were just excited that a 2nd breed of fish gave birth in our tank.it made us feel like we were doing something right.