Pregnant swordtail?

[bsemantic]

How do you tell if a fish is pregnant? I have 2 female red velvet swordtails and 1 male. One of the females is looking very round. Could she be pregnant?

 

[Jamnog]

yes she could be pregnant and if i remeber anything about sword tails yes she is. the best way to tell if something is pregnant is to see it along side a non pregnant fish of the same speicies. there is one other thing it could be but the fish normally swim pretty much upsideown before you have to wirry about that so congratulations and get yourself a breeding trap or net or something and have a look at this page here breeding fish i love that page. i think thatsabout all good i can do please anyone who thinks im wrong post a reply i am wrong allot.

 

[bsemantic]

Thanks for your reply. She is swimming fine. Although she pretty much stays away from the other swordtails now. I have a plastic box that hangs on the side of the tank. Will that work?

 

[Molly]

Usually swordatails show their sickness by narrowing the tail. If she is just round and there is nothing else detected in the water, she is pregnant. I have one in the tank right now, she is pregnant, i also have a larger swortail (male) is following her around protecting from the other male. You might want to set her aside to a different tank, because others might eat the "kids". If that is impossible, then buy a separating sheet in any fish store. They will protect the progeny.
Hope this helps.


Molly

 

[William]

Thanks for your reply. She is swimming fine. Although she pretty much stays away from the other swordtails now. I have a plastic box that hangs on the side of the tank. Will that work?

Livebearer fry really like to hide under things, what I like to do is just let them give birth naturally and when noticably thinner I have a good scour around the tank usually picking up several babies from each batch, it also helps that I have a quite heavily planted corner with java moss. I have mixed feedings about using net breeders because often it can be quite offputting if you put the mother in and she aborts the pregnancy, of course if you get the timing right then you can have a full batch of fry The plastic box - is it designed for breeeding? If its just a plastic box then it will need aeration but the holes/slits must not be big enough to let the fry out or be sharp so as to cut any fish