# lost swordtail fry



## orangebamboo (May 27, 2006)

My female swordtail is always pregnant but I never see her get too big and never see the fry. Today moving the plants around, I found a single fry. It wouldn't let me catch it and it got away. I have a lot of fish that would love to eat it and I want to save it. Is there any way to attract fry and find it easily among lots of plants? How long do you think it can live on its own with serpe tetras, swordtails, and neon tetras... mindful there are lots of anacris?


----------



## darkfalz (May 7, 2006)

Have you tried a breeding net when she gets close?


----------



## FortWayneFish (Mar 8, 2006)

a breeding net or even better a seperate tank for the female will be best. That way the only one who can eat the fry would be the mommy. 

Once your swordtail female is HIT she can have babies for a couple more times without a male. So when you notice her starting to get gravid, remove her to a net or another tank and wait.....

The serpe tetras will happily consume anything small enough to fit in there mouth and any fins they can get ahold of. Watch your small neon tetras around them as they might start to disappear.

best of luck


----------



## sam_i_am (May 30, 2006)

not sure if this will help but I found a little tank that goes in your tank and floats around. it has slits on the sides so that water can move in and out and on the bottom it has a false bottom in it with a slit so that the fry can drop to the bottom after birth and the mom cant eat em. It was really cheap at petsmart i think $7.


----------



## fishaddic25 (May 29, 2006)

Turn the fishtank light off and when you turn the light back on you should see the fry hidding up top in the plants (assuming you have floating plants). Then use a container of some sort to fastly scoop them up, the force of the water moving into the container should prevent the fry from being able to get away if dont fast enough and close enough to the fry.


----------

