Another question about my green sordtails that haven't had their fry yet?

Question

I have them in a 10 galon tank my theirselves and the bottom of my tank is covered in breeding grass with thick plants in each corner. I'm pretty sure they haven't had any fry at all because I check on them many times a day to look and surely I would have seen at least one baby if they were having them, not to mention their black spots are just getting bigger instead of smaller. My other sordtails, mollies and guppies have had babies many times in my 55 galon tank and I just catch them out with a net and put them in the breeding net till they get big enough. Many times I catch them swimming along my bigger fish who seem to pay them no mind and don't even chase them. Anytime I get a more agressive fish in there that chase the smaller ones, I take them out. These sordtails are close to 4 inches. I read somewhere it was possible they have hundreds of babies, if this is the case do they just hold them longer? If they had fry wouldn't they have got smaller, at least the black spots?

Answer 1

Sword tails can have huge numbers of babies at once. Over 100 haave been recorded many,many times and I seem to remember one report of over 200 some years back, but don;t hold me to that.

They don't hold them longer or have smaller babies depoending on the brood size. All of that stays fairly well the same.

MM

Answer 2

I almost want to tell you to buy a floating breeder tank and put your female in the tank. We used to raise swordtails, but in a 10 gallon tank, the male will most assuredly eat the fry as fast as he possibly can. Breeding grass never did a lick of good while we bred in a 10 gallon. I don't know about your question of keeping the fry longer, but I would recommend you buying that floating breeder tank.