Topic: Babies For Our Fish Tank

[Patty S]

On our way back from Seattle yesterday, we stopped off at Triss's to stretch our legs... & wound up bringing home new additions for our fish tank!
     
Our fish are so big that I'm sure they'd think the little guys are snacks, so they're living in the breeder net for now. (Top left in the tank, above & closeup, below.)
     

We had Swordtails a couple years ago, but they never had babies for us ...(that we know of)   When they died we never got around to replacing them, so we're tickled pink to have these!

Thanx, Triss! (Hey, what we thought were six babies, turned out to be seven!)

[Triss]

I see that Patty.  Way cool.  I sure hope you have some of each.  Once they get bigger you can tell when the momma is gonna give birth cuz she gets a really dark spot on her tummy.  It is called a gravid spot (pretty sure) and then you can put her in the breeder net.

[Patty S]

We thought our Mommy Swortail was PG a couple times, cuz her tummy was dark & bulgy looking.   We heard that you can see eyeballs within that bulge, but we never did.  I put her in the breeder net for a few days (several times), but nothing happened. How did you know when your mommy fish was ready to "pop"?

[Triss]

I usually keep a very close eye on them once they get the dark spot and their tummy is huge and then move them when I see the first baby.  Then out they come after a dozen or so cuz we cannot support more than that.  This time, she started having babies at bedtime and when I got up in the morning to move her out there were about 100 in there or so it seemed.  She and a bunch of them went into the big tank and we probably have 30-40 left in the 2nd tank now.  This is only her 2nd fry and the first one all of the babies only survived a day and all died.

I think I have a pregnant guppy right now but I will only pull her out cuz I need a few more males, we are down to one.  All that survived from the last guppy fry were all girls.

[Patty S]

It sounds as though if one of them does have babies for us, that we'll hafta borrow one of Dave & Amy's tanks!  I don't remember how fast they grow (although our Swordtails were a lot bigger than these are, when we got them), but I'm almost thinking that I might need to tank these babies, instead of making them live in that breeder net till they're big enough to not look like snacks! 

I also worry about that Angel fish, cuz she's been known to try & pick on any new fish we've gotten, until they establish a pecking order... or I've moved their "toys" around, so she'd get confused & start thinking that she's the one who is "company", so she stops the bullying!

I meant to ask you how old these babies are.

[Wrennie]

aww babies! Yeah I think your big fish would suck those babies right down. Cool, lucky 7!

[Triss]

Well I got a 2nd tank just for the babies... We usually put them with the bigger fish when they are the size they are now.  But we only have other guppies and swordtails, not too aggressive.  I eventually want to turn the 2nd tank into more of an aggressive fish tank with sharks and such.

I just looked back at my fish post and the babies were born around Valentine's Day so I would call it that.  They seem to grow a lot slower than the guppies do cuz most of those babies born a few days earlier are all big as the adults now.