Swordtails pregnancy

Question
Hi. I recently found a small fry in the bottom of my tank it's about half a cm long. I quickly got him out and floated him in a pot with a few leaves from our plants so he doesn't get eaten. Our only livebearing fish in the tank is swordtails so we asumed that was what it was. So we rushed out and bought a breeding trap and put the fry in the bottom and the mum in the top of the trap. She is still very fat and has a dark spot at the back of her stomach. The thing is she has not had anymore fry since we found the little fry which was 3 days ago. Is this normal? Shall we leave her in the trap? When she is out of the trap she gets chased by our gourami and it nips her tail. Do you think the fry came from the other swordtail?

Answer
Hi Gemma

The dark spot you mentioned on the back of her stomach is called a gravid spot. This is where the fry come out. However, moving her to the breeder trap probably stressed her. When pregnant fish are stressed, they will abort their births. It is important to keep her as normal as possible to prevent her from becoming stressed. The breeder net is where you should put the fry after she has them.

If the Gourami is bothering her, you can separate the Gourami either by moving it to another tank, or by using a tank divider.

Hope this information is helpful to you, good luck!

Richard