Swordtaile Pregnancy

I have a few female swordtails and a male. I have two red wag females and a pineaplle mickymouse female. the pineaplle micky mouse is clearly pregnent, i can see the gravid spot. It is a pale oarange color and her stomach is not very plump. I have had it for about 2 and a half weeks or so atleast and hasnt changed much since then. I drew a picture because she is impossible to photograph, she is smart but not skidish. It is very close to scale. My red wag sword tails are most likely pregnant, i have had them for a month at least but i cant see a gravid spot, is that because of their color or are they not pregnant?

Recky10 said:

I have a few female swordtails and a male. I have two red wag females and a pineaplle mickymouse female. the pineaplle micky mouse is clearly pregnent, i can see the gravid spot. It is a pale oarange color and her stomach is not very plump. I have had it for about 2 and a half weeks or so atleast and hasnt changed much since then. I drew a picture because she is impossible to photograph, she is smart but not skidish. It is very close to scale. My red wag sword tails are most likely pregnant, i have had them for a month at least but i cant see a gravid spot, is that because of their color or are they not pregnant?

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These are what the red ones look like.
If someone could post a picture of a swordtail about to give birth that would be great.

hey dont look too pregnant. But it may just be that they are first or second time mom's, which means samller batch's so, they may very well be pregnant.

kribensis12 said:

hey dont look too pregnant. But it may just be that they are first or second time mom's, which means samller batch's so, they may very well be pregnant.

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hi
like kribensis12
says they still may be juviniles and for there first few broods may be as little as 5 or so but as they get older they will get fatter and have more fry up 2 at least 50 or so pluss

Alright man!

I have been breeding these swordtails for a good while now...and always have a constant supply of fish coming through my tanks!

The fish below is NOT pregnant and I dont have a photo of any that are...they are asleep right now so dont want to take photo's of them. I have indicated where you'd see if they were pregnant or not. My fish only expand a slight bit but the presence of a dark spot in the red region indicated (the gravid spot) is a definate indication that they are pregnant. My fish are black in this region...really black!



It is easy to see this spot as my fish are quite transparent in this region. I had black mollys before (notice I said had...bad genes there..all died) and it was impossible to notice whether the fish were pregnant..but the female in this case got HUGE and ate like a horse!! That was my only indication, o and loads of black fry in the tank at the time of birth!!!

Recky10 said:

I have a few female swordtails and a male. I have two red wag females and a pineaplle mickymouse female. the pineaplle micky mouse is clearly pregnent, i can see the gravid spot. It is a pale oarange color and her stomach is not very plump. I have had it for about 2 and a half weeks or so atleast and hasnt changed much since then. I drew a picture because she is impossible to photograph, she is smart but not skidish. It is very close to scale. My red wag sword tails are most likely pregnant, i have had them for a month at least but i cant see a gravid spot, is that because of their color or are they not pregnant?

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The gravid spot can be very misleading, it is not a good idea to go by the gravid spot cos pregnant females can have no dark gravid spot and non pregnant ones can have a gravid spot..

The best thing to go by his size, when the belly at fron and back drops a lot, the bottom will square off, this when they are usually due.

Looking from above the fish is a also a good way as you will see that she is very ball shaped in the stomach.

On lots of platys, swordtails, mollies.. gravid spots can be very hard to see due to thier body colour, but as i said above, the garvid spot is misleading on these type of livebearers.

Going by the scale of your drawing, it is not very far on pregnant..

This pic is of a guppy but this is the type of size the belly will be when heavily pregnant...

5teady...is that true about the presence and absence of a gravid spot? I haven't heard this before but it was my understanding that the gravid spot was there simply because it was the eyes of the baby fry inside the mother, so what could it be for the females that are not pregnant?

scorphonic said:

5teady...is that true about the presence and absence of a gravid spot? I haven't heard this before but it was my understanding that the gravid spot was there simply because it was the eyes of the baby fry inside the mother, so what could it be for the females that are not pregnant?

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Yes m8 itrs very true.

I showed this ages bk when i had some virgin females (and they was 100% virgins), each and every one of them had a dark gravid spot even though they was not pregnant.

Heavy pregnant ones can have, orange, pinky, dark black, light black, even clear gravid spots so its not a good ibdication to go by.

The best indication is size and behaviour, also jotting down dates of drops, you then see regular patters/behaviour in thier breeding habbits.