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I was given a mexican green male swordtail. I bought him two females. They became pregnant & were due any day. The other day one hung at the top & was dead by morning. I figured she died trying to give birth.

Yesterday I bought another female & put her in the QT tank. This am. she was no where to be found inside or outside the tank, but she left me with a batch of baby swordtail's.

It is not like me to have fish deaths & since they were both pregnant mexican green swordtails, I was wondering if anyone else was having problems with this fish giving birth?

If you aren't sure if you have this fish, they are smaller than regular swordtail's, very common, grey colored with a reddish stripe down their middle & the male has a lime green tail outlined in black.

Moving fish right around the time they are due to give birth can cause issues. You want to get them into the new tank several weeks before so they have time to adjust. The only livebearers I've ever lost I had just moved a few days before they had their fry. Your actually better off picking the skinnier females at the lfs tank. Chances are good they are still pregnant but not as far along.

Yeah, I have heard that it isn't good to move pregnant females, as it could cause them to deliver early. I didn't even pay attention to her size at the store. I didn't even think about it! I will from now on! I already have a batch of platy fry that way too. Guess I will try again & this time get a skinny female. Thanks for the reminder.

I've never lost any new fish for no apparent reason either, until my last new batch of swords. I purchased 1 male Jumbo sword and 2 females. Several hours later there were babies from one of the girls (she was also munching up her own fry) Two days later I found her dead, she showed no signs if illness or strange behaviour. Must have been the stress of the move. I too from now one will look for skinny Females, never occured to me this could happen. By the way I also got a bunch of very pregnant platties at the same time...no problems,,,go figure?

120 GAL. Community Freshwater (2 huge mated angles, 2 German rams, Red tail shark, 2 Pearl Grammies, 3 Bushynose Plecos, Swordtails

110 Gal. (3 Koi Angles, 3 black marble viel tail Angles) 20 Neon tetras, 1 red tail shark, 3 clown loaches, Platys