Sorry, I have a tendancy for long posts so I will ask my question first. Is the type of pregnancy complication a genetic thing (will the babys do the same thing) or just something that happens time to time?
I have just had a female swordtail die of pregnancy complications. All the "experts by experience" has been saying she is going to have the babys for 2 weeks now. Her belly has been squared off for that long at least. Well today I came home and she was swimming nose down and had a solid blood streak down her side. I could see babys twitching inside here. So i did the only thing i could think of in the moment. I scooped her out to do three things in no particular order:
1: Prevent her from "exploding" and poisoning the other fish with whatever infection she may or may not have.
2: Save as many babys as possible.
3: Save her if possible.
So I had her in a small confining bowl so i could examine her. She was very weak and didnt move much anyway. I poked a little around the anus and it immediatly burst squirting a mixture of ... well i had a graphic account but i will spare you with it. lets say stuff and babys. If the info is required to answer my question properly i will repost it.
Most of the babys were dead (or looked dead) I found 2 of them that were twitching so I used a straw (which by the way is the best way i've found for handleing fry. Nobody seems to have mentioned it anywhere so i will go over my technique below) to remove them from the water and placed them in clean water. Hopefully diluting the infectious material enough to let them survive.
I seperated the "dead" and living fry in different bowls. After that i went back to the female. . .well lets say the stuff was vital to the female and she was dieing slowly. I put her in a ziplock with a small amount of water and stuck her in the freezer to euthinize her as I've read elseware. It was amazingly quick. Within 5 min it was frozen solid. much quicker than removing them from the water which was the way the "experts by experience" told me.
During this time I noticed alot of the "dead" fry were moving. I moved them to the live bowl. A few min later I noticed more were moving. at this time I had 5 live out of the total 20 babys recovered from the explosion. After I noticed they were coming back to life I decided to leave the dead bowl for at least until tomarrow morning.
Again I restate the question. Is this something that just happens from time to time? Or is a genetic defect that will be passed on to the babys?
Thanks for your time and sorry about the long post
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Here is the info on the straw.
I usually use a clear rigid tube about 3/8". While it is out of the water I put my finger over the tip. This traps air in the tube as it is inserted into the water. Place it in the water near the object you want to pick up and release your thumb. Quickly put your thumb back on the tube. this sucks the object up quickly.
with practice you can do a combination of leaving the tube half filled with water and only opening the tube a little and you can vary the force that it creates.
I don't pretend to have invented this. I have read something about a "glass net" that seems to use this principle in a old (1950's) aquarium book.
I have just had a female swordtail die of pregnancy complications. All the "experts by experience" has been saying she is going to have the babys for 2 weeks now. Her belly has been squared off for that long at least. Well today I came home and she was swimming nose down and had a solid blood streak down her side. I could see babys twitching inside here. So i did the only thing i could think of in the moment. I scooped her out to do three things in no particular order:
1: Prevent her from "exploding" and poisoning the other fish with whatever infection she may or may not have.
2: Save as many babys as possible.
3: Save her if possible.
So I had her in a small confining bowl so i could examine her. She was very weak and didnt move much anyway. I poked a little around the anus and it immediatly burst squirting a mixture of ... well i had a graphic account but i will spare you with it. lets say stuff and babys. If the info is required to answer my question properly i will repost it.
Most of the babys were dead (or looked dead) I found 2 of them that were twitching so I used a straw (which by the way is the best way i've found for handleing fry. Nobody seems to have mentioned it anywhere so i will go over my technique below) to remove them from the water and placed them in clean water. Hopefully diluting the infectious material enough to let them survive.
I seperated the "dead" and living fry in different bowls. After that i went back to the female. . .well lets say the stuff was vital to the female and she was dieing slowly. I put her in a ziplock with a small amount of water and stuck her in the freezer to euthinize her as I've read elseware. It was amazingly quick. Within 5 min it was frozen solid. much quicker than removing them from the water which was the way the "experts by experience" told me.
During this time I noticed alot of the "dead" fry were moving. I moved them to the live bowl. A few min later I noticed more were moving. at this time I had 5 live out of the total 20 babys recovered from the explosion. After I noticed they were coming back to life I decided to leave the dead bowl for at least until tomarrow morning.
Again I restate the question. Is this something that just happens from time to time? Or is a genetic defect that will be passed on to the babys?
Thanks for your time and sorry about the long post
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the info on the straw.
I usually use a clear rigid tube about 3/8". While it is out of the water I put my finger over the tip. This traps air in the tube as it is inserted into the water. Place it in the water near the object you want to pick up and release your thumb. Quickly put your thumb back on the tube. this sucks the object up quickly.
with practice you can do a combination of leaving the tube half filled with water and only opening the tube a little and you can vary the force that it creates.
I don't pretend to have invented this. I have read something about a "glass net" that seems to use this principle in a old (1950's) aquarium book.
