swordtail fry

Kristina10

i have 2 female swordtails and i have never breed sword before
i think the female swords are at the early stages and just starting to get gravid spots
i have some questions

do you care for them the same as Guppy fry?
do you take care of them ?
what do they look like ?
what do you feed them?

thanks

kristina

bettababy

do you care for them the same as Guppy fry? Yes
do you take care of them ? That depends on if you wish them to survive or not
what do they look like ? small minis of the adults, not as long in body until they get a little bit older
what do you feed them? crubmled flake food, baby brine shrimp, crumbled freeze dried brine shrimp all work well for the first couple of weeks, then they can have anything the adults can havethough they may need it on a smaller scale and should be fed at least 2 - 3 times/day for the first 8 - 10 wksBecause fry need to eat 2 - 3 times/day the water change schedule should increase. Daily 10% water changes will help to keep things stable. You haven't said what size tank these fish are in, so watch your population level. Swordtails, like guppies and platys, etc can have 30+ fry every 30 days for each female. Even if not exposed to a male, each female can retain enough sperm in her body to fertilize 3 - 4 months worth of fry. That gets to be a lot of fish very fast. Swordtails can reach up to 5 inches in length at full grown, so having an outlet for the fry or a very large tank on hand and ready is important for avoiding problems in the main tank.

Hope this helps.

fryup

well iv just added my baby guppys back to the main tank from a breeder net ....the only thing iv fed them on is crushed flakes and when they were big enough i gave them tubifex 3 times a week ...i think they will be fine on crushed up flakes....good luck :):):)

Kristina10

just one more thing
do baby swordtails have colour when their born?
thanks alot
kristina

bettababy

That depends on the coloration of the parent fish and the genetic traits they bring with them. It is not uncommon to have even a few fry that have little to no color during their first weeks, even if the parents have very bright and deep coloration. There is no way to predict at this stage what you will end up with. The only way to somewhat accurately predict the coloration of fry in this species of fish is by selective breeding over a long period of time, over many generations.

Kristina10

thanks this helped alot

pretzelsz

my swordtails that were both orange had fry that came out looking neon then they had fry that were also neon really confusing to me...

Kristina10

that's really weird how the fry come out a totally different colour

fryup

i had just 1 Guppy fry born on the 15th and it had black tips to its dorsal and anal fin but its mom is yallow and dad is blue so .....i dont know what its going to look like

pretzelsz

They are also really shy. The mother was vey assertive and they hide in the corner if I put my hand in. It's funny