A trio of swordtails can produce how many offspring

[Friend to Fish]

I have a male and two females in a 10 gallon. One was already pregnant and had over 40 fry just over a week ago. The other is pregnant right now. I place the first in a birthing trap. When she was done I took her out. I left the fry in there a week. There were probably 40. Today I moved the adults to a second ten gallon tank to let the 30 give/take fry have full run of the tank. If his 2nd "baby's momma" has fry within a week, I'll want to get them out of the trap within a week. Will it be too soon to transfer back to first tank if the fry are 3 weeks old? Will the male take a break or go right at it again? Am I going to run out of room before long? The store the adults came from told me they'd give $.50 store credit for each healthy Swordtail at least 1.5" long I bring back to them. I'm going to guess you can tell the gender by then.
What have I gotten myself into?

 

[petluvr]

The male will go right back at it, trade them in at the LFS because you will run out of room for them.

 

[homedog98]

As long as the fry are bigger then the filter intake, and your other fishes mouths, they're safe. But really, the 3 weeks should be fine with the newborns.

 

[allaboutfish]

have you cycled these tanks?

 

[Fishkeeper71]

As long the tank is properly conditioned they should be fine. If the filter intake scares you put a sponge around it but at 3 weeks they shouldn't be getting pulled up into that though. As for what you got yourself into? Hehe welcome to the world of live bearers, Swords are great fish to have and easy to care for and maintain. Platy's and Guppies will do the same things and leave you with hundreds of fish after a time hehehe. If your LfS is offering you credit by all means do so it helps. Good luck with the Swords you will enjoy keeping them, post up some pics if get the chance sometime. We here enjoy those as well.

 

[sideshow201]

Keep in mind that livebearer females store sperm too so they can have a couple more broods even without the males "love".

 

[TL1000RSquid]

Keep in mind that livebearer females store sperm too so they can have a couple more broods even without the males "love".

Yep had that problem with mollies even after I got rid of the male the 2 females both popped out 2-3 more batches.


With my Mollies it seemed like every week they were popping out more, I didn't even take them out of my main tank, I had a prefilter on my filter so they wouldn't get sucked up and the parents didnt eat to many, the only other residents at the time were cory's, ghost shrimp, and nerites, none of which bothered fry. Don't think any of my LFS will pay for livebearers so I used them as feeders for my reef tank.