Swordtail Babies! Help!

[yashinfan]

Okay so my swordtail just gave birth in a 5g tank in my kitchen, which is occupied by her and her friend that is female. I removed the one fry I found and it is now in a half filled betta bowl. Do I aerate? When do I feed it? Do I keep the filter in the 5g off overnight in case more babies are born? Do I add more salt? Melafix??

AHH! PLZ HELP I AM GOING INSANE!!

Edit: No one replied so this is what I'm doing for tonight. Lil bit of talk, filter is on. Floating plant added to betta bowl for my fry. No aeration.

[rodney10954]

When my sword tail had babies i got one of those breeder tanks they go inside your tank and just float
i try to feed them 2-3 times a day flake food
that i crush up with my fingers
of the 3 i had
2 lived
one just died cause of ick
couldnt take the heat
wish i knew what i know now
i would say leave the filter on
just try and catch all you can

[yashinfan]

Is it possible my swordtail only had one baby and that she aborted the rest?? I see these weird lil things floating about, approx the same size as the fry but it is curled up and fluffy (kinda like it was dead and then grew mold??). That or she's waiting for another time to release them but she looks a whole lot thinner today.

[Dahlia]

That sounds like dead fry to me. They could have died for a lot of different reasons, but it is possible she aborted.

What kind of filter do you have that you'd want to turn it off? If it has an intake that you could stretch some pantyhose over (fastened with a rubber band) I recommend this. I don't recommend leaving your filter off as water quality is important to the parents, and doubly important to the fry.

You should keep the remaining fry in a filtered situation as well, many people recommend sponge filters. If you can't afford a tank get a larger tupperware or other food-safe container and put your filter in that. You can leave it barebottom (no gravel) for easier cleaning.

[Slappy*McFish]

I would leave all babies in the main tank. Just put a sponge prefilter(ac mini sponge) over the filter intake, and throw in a big clump of java moss for any babies to hide in. The babies will find plenty of infusoria and rotifers to munch on in an established tank. Especially if you throw in some live plants.(java moss).. When the fry get bigger, they'll eat crushed up food. When you feed the adults, almost always there will be tiny bits and pieces mixed in that the fry will clean up.

[yashinfan]

The filter is an AC Mini, so yes, I could do what I did to the other one in my danio fry tank with rubber bands and that material from under puffy dresses (I forget what it is called!).
Don't you think leaving the fry in a 5g is very risky? there's not a lot of room in there for it to hide. The only plants I have available are water lettuce and water hyacinths. The water lettuce is currently in the bowl with the fry.
I don't think the fry could have died that fast unless they were aborted. Anyway, back to the baseball game, GO YANKEES :)

[yashinfan]

Little update:
So I purchased 80$ of equipment from big als, including a really huge fake plant (looks very real) that is like blades of thin grass, which I thought would be helpful to any future fry. I also bought a heater and filter for my 4.5 gallon, which will soon be lil swordtail fry's home. I bought an air pump for my 5 gallon, which houses the two adult swords.
The two adult swords now have ick on top of fin rot and being pregnant. Sheesh! I've never had such problematic fish before. So I am using Fungus Eliminator, Ick Cure, sea salt, and Melafix to help those fish but I'm afraid I'm going to poison them with all these meds! I left the filter on but covered it up so no fry would be sucked in and I opened the blinds so the tank would heat up more in the day (I have no heater for that tank and it is plastic so I don't think it would be a good idea anyway).
I'm really confused as to what to do about these fish and I could use some guidance!

[tricksterpup]

Ok,
Sword tails can be pretty tempermental fish, I would slow down on all the meds and do more water changes. Water quailty is a number one thing for these guys. As we know with ick, it appears due to stress. I would actually go out and buy some hornwort, some live plant material. This will help relax the fish. It may have been a bit premature to add the other fish until it was fully healed and placed in the main tank but that is here nor there.. we all have done that.. ;)
Now I am not a big advocate on meds, specially some of the real odd stuff. I would only treat the fungus with the salt, this will take care of the ick to. The reason why many people complain about livebearers is that they get ick very easily. This is because the fish tend to be stressed due to lack of water quality. They like very clean hard water. I hope this works.
As for your fry, you really do not need to much help in this department. Since you are doing so well with your Zebra fry, just treat the livebearers like them.

jim

[yashinfan]

I did a good (20%) water change yesterday, and there is approx 3 tbsp of sea salt in the tank. This does not seem to be helping with ick or finrot. However, today I added ick and fungus meds, turned on the light to heat the tank and they seem to be swimming around and not clamping their fins. Very odd but it seems they are much happier??
In terms of the fry, do you think that there is a chance that the fry will get ick because they came from that tank?? How would I know because the fry are soooooooo small.

[yashinfan]

Okay, it's been a week and here are my developments:
The one original fry is alive and well in the betta bowl, and today the Swordtail Mum had at least 4 more babies, so I moved her to my 30 gallon with the danios.
Now I have to move the other fry from the bowl into the 5 gallon tank with the rest of the fry.
Do you think the Swordtail will be harassed by the danios?
Melafix on its own is not helping my other swordtail, so I have gone back to fungus eliminator. The swordtail who gave birth appears to be disease free.

[travelinman1969]

If the danios didn't have ick and the sword still does, chances are you will introduce it to that tank also. Only good thing is danios are pretty resilient to ick. Ick will thrive on anything it touches, i.e. a net, plants, etc. Go to the pet store and get Some Jungle labs Ick Clear. Use as directed. May have to use more than once. Be resilient. Do the water changes as direted. The danios shouldn't be a problem to the swords unless they are really weak, but even then shouldn't be a problem. Melafix is not for ick. More for gill infections, missing scales, etc. I've had a ton of baby swords in the past and what you are doing for that fish sounds good. Be careful though after awhile they're like gremlins, they keep coming and coming and ........................................
Good luck!!

[yashinfan]

Ahh, okay, see the swordtail I put in the 30 gallon doesn' t have ick, I don't think she ever did, so she got treated for it. The other one looked like it did, but I think it turned out to be finrot. The melafix is for the finrot that both swords have. I'm hoping I'll get a male swordtail so I can save myself 3.50$ :)

[travelinman1969]

She may not have symptoms but may be a carrier. Keep a close eye on everything. If it had white specks it was Ick, which sometimes leads to worse things like fin rot. If it didn't no problem. What's up with the male? You have 2 females. You're wanting gremlins?? lol!!

[yashinfan]

Alright, so I bought my fish from the petstore and she was already knocked up so I didn't have to buy a male. That's the deal behind that. So I don't think she ever had ick and she doesn't appear to have it now. The 30 gallon has great water conditions, and she looks to have settled in quite nicely. I am adding melafix for 3 days to make sure she doesn't spread anything through the water. As for salt, how much can I add to a 30 gallon if there are also danios in there? The swordtail in the 4.5 gallon q-tank is suffering from a really bad bout of finrot, so I've been using only melafix but that didn't help so I had to start using fungus eliminator again. She was really stressed out before so I think that's how she got it, but she looks like she is starting to get better. The fry are doing great and I keep finding more everyday. Why I want babies is because I am hoping to get a male out of the bunch and then I won't have to buy any new fish :)