Pleasant surpise!

[Art]

@Art Sometimes I am not so happy when new fish appear, especially wth my Pepper Cories! 3 years ago I originally had a little shoal of 6 happy Cories. Very soon they boomed up to 18 (my own fault as I took the eggs off the front of the tank and nurtured them in a Nursery Tank !) But I managed to get rid of 12 to local fish keepers. Now I see that in addition to the little Sworties (!), there are now an additional 2 Cories. Pretty soon the CT will be again oerpopulated! But I will be interested to see hope the little ones you have discovered turn out.

I'll try to take a picture. It's tough. Hidden way of life.

[Art]

My fry have been mainly cichlids, and it’s a special sight to see a cloud of a thousand fry, much smaller than livebearers, hovering between two planet sized parents in fullest colour. But it’s still just as special to see a new livebearer fry. Even if it is a gupptail, or a mollplat, or whatever.

It's true. You must have seen that. A female Nannacara anomala with a cloud of young animals. She looks threatening. The head black. The sides checked in black. The father has to hide, even though he is taller.
When a young fish pulls away, it is snatched by its mouth and spat back into the cloud.

[Jon_D]

Question. Will the female keep on giving birth although her mate is no longer there?

[Gingerlove05]

Question. Will the female keep on giving birth although her mate is no longer there?

Livebearers can hold on to sperm sacs and keep giving birth up to 8 batches of fry, average pregnancy is around 4 weeks. So they can keep giving birth for about 8 months.
It would depend how many times shes dropped fry as to how many are left

[Jon_D]

@Gingerlove05 Is there any use in putting the female into a seperate tank, on her own ? As no doubt the greedy buggas in the CT will relish new-born protein. Or will that just stress her?

[Art]

N. annomala are not viviparous. They are cichlids. Dwarf cichlids like Apistogramma.
The couple spawns under a stone. As soon as the eggs are there, the male is driven away. The female takes care of the clutch alone. After hatching, it comes out with the cloud. It doesn't hurt to have a few other fish swimming around with you. This strengthens the protective instinct. In this species this instinct is so strong that the female still tends when the fry are larger and have been removed. She then drives a cloud of living daphnia together and protects them.

[Gingerlove05]

@Gingerlove05 Is there any use in putting the female into a seperate tank, on her own ? As no doubt the greedy buggas in the CT will relish new-born protein. Or will that just stress her?

It can cause them stress when they’re near giving birth, but be warned if you move her you could end up with hundreds very quickly.

[Jon_D]

@Gingerlove05 I might just leave her in the CT and let the other inhabitants have a surplus of protein. although I really don't like the idea of having a tank full of cannibals in my lounge. I'm gonna lock the door at night now.

[Gingerlove05]

Its more instinct and opportunism as opposed to canibalism. You have to think the fry are around the same sort of size (when first born) to look similar to an insect/meal squirming about to get away/hide.
As I say if you think you get overstocked with corys, livebearers can triple/quadruple that out put.
We have 400+ fry in a little over 2 years from our platies and swordtail (singular!), and took us a good few months after to rehome them all

[Jon_D]

In the 10 days since I first saw the tiny baby fish, (August 31st) they have really grown much larger! Now almost the same size of my Neon Tetras!