Sword Tail Fry

[igongora]

Guess what,

Yesterday I went to LFS and and purchases some guppies and some swordtail
one of my swordtail seemed to be pregnant, but I was going to isolate her later on, I just wanted to pay close attention to her, but this morning I went and checked my tank and I saw somthing really small movin, it was a swordtail fry.. I started looking around in the tank and saw a lot of frys and as I came to work, my sword tails was still giving birth to other frys.. . It was the first time I see a fish givin birth.. I've got about 20 frys.. so far The problem is that I have some cory and some guppies and swordtails in that tank.. I took my mollie out becuase it was chasing the frys.

Can cory cats eat swordtail frys? I saw a male guppi eating a dead fry.. I hope it doesn't try to eat the live ones..

 

[rich311k]

Congrats, I think you should be more worried about the swordtails and the guppies than the cories. I would imagine the cories will eat some too. You could float some plants to give the fry some cover.

 

[hulkamaniac]

I'm floating hornwort in my breeding tank to give cover to the fry. I haven't had any fry pop up (pop out?) yet so I don't know exactly how well it'll work.

 

[Alshain]

Livebearers offer no natal care so once they are born they are a free meal if they don't get out of the way. If they don't have a place to hide then they might not make it. The mother will not eat while giving birth and probably for a while afterward but any others (such as your mollie) will actively pursue this new food source. Don't feel too bad if you get home and don't find many fry left, chances are your swordtail is still "storing" sperm and will give birth again in a few weeks. Just be prepared for the next round.

If you do have fry left, keep your fish well fed (but not over fed). Fish tend to be as lazy as humans and will take the easier route to feed their bellies. So if they are presented between the choice of floating food or food they have to catch, they will most likely ignore the fry.