Phallocerus Caudimaculatus - Advice On Separating Pregnant Female

[a1matt]

I am after any tips that will help me take an educated guess as to when my newly acquired, and already gravid, Phallocerus Caudimaculatus will drop her fry.

In particular I am wondering if this species develop the squared off look and large dark gravid spot the same as guppies (as I am a little bit familiar with them).

I will be separating her, but want to minimise her time in the holding cage thingy I've built.

Will add some pics to the post tomorrow.

 

[a1matt]

I can answer my own question as she dropped overnight... no dark spot and doesn't 'square off' to the same extent as guppies do.

No sign of any fry, but my tank is pretty densely planted so there is a chance some survived and are in hiding.

 

[a1matt]

Here are the pics as promised, all taken last night, so useful as a reference for anyone else curious how this species can look just before dropping.

























This is the tank, whenever fry survive they tend to stay in the clump of crypts on the right hand side

 

[bluesword23516]

Wow! Gorgeous fish! You can tell she is dropping if you look at her birthing canal, it is larger than normal (dilated) and a little squared off. I hope some fry survived!  

 

[a1matt]

Thanks I'll post back here if I spot any fry. There is a lot of guppy fry in the tank, so I might not be able to differentiate between them until they get to a certain size.

I am excited about the guppy fry as they are F1 from Columbian wild caught guppies. I will try and get pics but it is not easy (you can see them blurring around in the above pics).

 

[fish48]

They are a peaceful fish easy to keep and breed I find they do well at 70f-72f when kept well fed they leave there fry alone

 

[bluesword23516]

Do the males of the spotted female look similar to her? 

 

[fish48]

Both male and female are spotted/speckled.
new born fry start off with one spot in the centre of body . some may get more speckled then others.

 

[bluesword23516]

Cool! They are really pretty fish. I would love to buy some like them, I will have to see if anyone in my area has any.