# Female Swordtail Died



## myerscough (Feb 11, 2010)

hey, 

we are breeding swordtails, we succeeded as the 1st female gave birth early this week. only have 2 surviving fry, we could have had more we aren't sure.

however she died this morning, she exploded but we aren't sure of the cause yet because she has been fine for the last 2-4 days...

she was constipated for a while but we changed her diet and everything was ok, however the 3 swordtails (2 female 1 male) were given a lot to eat on tues by the other member in my team, just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what happened...

i was watching her yesterday and she looked as if she was giving birth but all that was coming was a white ball that looked like it was a cluster of eggs, which is odd as they are live bearers...


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## chamfishlvr (Jan 22, 2010)

wow, thats odd. I've never dealt with swords, but from what i've heard if they're stressed out they will let out eggs and those are basically premies. the stress might have killed her, but she could've had some sort of problem with her digestion... hard to tell... good luck with the breeding!


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## Guest (Feb 12, 2010)

depends on how much feed them. fish can literally stuff them selves to death and explode.

its quite possible she was aborting the eggs....premature fry.....or unfertalized eggs and that went wrong as well. 

it could be a combi of the two as well. Swords are a very very stressed out fish and do weird things. i had one that would try swimming into the filter outlet.


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