O
oekaki2003
Guest
I enjoy breeding fish and am currently trying to create a butterfly banded fin in swordtails, Xiphophorus hellerii. One of my females, who is my favorite, gave birth to a batch of 17 superb fry on March 26th. She was still very large, and I noticed her starting to square off recently. Last night I placed her in a floating breeding separator. Being placed in small places stresses swordtails, so I watch the fish very carefully once inside. Some fish get very very scared in the space and I remove them. This particular female is very placid and not too stressed in the floating breeding separator unless my face is up next to the glass inspecting her, which is understandable, and I try not to bother her too much.
She was placed in the breeding separator last night. This morning there were no fry, I checked. At 3pm today, I noticed that she was in the corner of the separator making little flaps with her pectoral fins but not moving, and it looked a lot like labor. Sure enough, there were three fry in the bottom of the separating container. One was swimming up in the main container with her, and I was afraid she would eat it. So I removed the fry and gave her some space to finish labor. The fry seem to be fully developed, even though this is three days short of a month from her last delivery. The average water temperature was 75 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. I feed the fish three small meals a day, since there are medium to large size fry in the main tank and they have tiny bellies and must eat frequently.
My question: I understand that swordtails have a gestation time of four to six weeks, my sources being several fish breeding books and past experience. Is there any reason to explain this female's unusually short gestation of 28 days?
Swordtails aren't guppies; according to every book I've read, they take longer than 28 days to gestate.
Any comments? Has any other breeder out there had a similar experience?
Oh, an extra detail. Even though she was larger in the belly region than females who had never given birth after her last delivery, there were no fry left inside her. Her abdomen is clear and I can see when fry are in there because of their black eyeballs.
By "giving her some space" to finish labor, I meant that I left her alone to finish, not that I placed her in another tank. She's still in the breeding separator.
She was placed in the breeding separator last night. This morning there were no fry, I checked. At 3pm today, I noticed that she was in the corner of the separator making little flaps with her pectoral fins but not moving, and it looked a lot like labor. Sure enough, there were three fry in the bottom of the separating container. One was swimming up in the main container with her, and I was afraid she would eat it. So I removed the fry and gave her some space to finish labor. The fry seem to be fully developed, even though this is three days short of a month from her last delivery. The average water temperature was 75 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. I feed the fish three small meals a day, since there are medium to large size fry in the main tank and they have tiny bellies and must eat frequently.
My question: I understand that swordtails have a gestation time of four to six weeks, my sources being several fish breeding books and past experience. Is there any reason to explain this female's unusually short gestation of 28 days?
Swordtails aren't guppies; according to every book I've read, they take longer than 28 days to gestate.
Any comments? Has any other breeder out there had a similar experience?
Oh, an extra detail. Even though she was larger in the belly region than females who had never given birth after her last delivery, there were no fry left inside her. Her abdomen is clear and I can see when fry are in there because of their black eyeballs.
By "giving her some space" to finish labor, I meant that I left her alone to finish, not that I placed her in another tank. She's still in the breeding separator.
