We're ready to go on a week long vacation, and lo and behold I find a few fry hiding out in the tank! We've got 2 female platys and 2 female mollies, all of which have looked pregnant over the past few weeks. The fry have twin-bar markings, so I'm thinking they're from our twin-bar platy. The mollies look like they're next to drop, though hopefully not before we get back.

My question is this: if we leave a vacation feeder in the tank, will the fry be ok scavenging? Or should I try and find some other feeding solution (I might be able to get a friend to stop by daily while we're gone). I have no other tank, but I do have some hornwort floating and plenty of other plants. Water stats have been stable. This is a 12 gallon Eclipse12. Thanks in advance!

I don't like vacation blocks. If not eaten they pollute the water. 5-7 days is fine the fish will not suffer as long as u don't feed extra before u go or after u get back.

the only thing is if you leave the fry with the adults and starve them, then the fry are more likely to be eaten by them

You can buy automatic fish feeders which are timed. That's probably your bets option.

They have a new block out by TetraMin and its gel food block and it dosent pollute the water, i've tried it before. Works great.

Thanks for the replies. I've looked into the gel block feeder and hopefully everything will be fine. I figure the fry can fend for themselves as they always have.

If you can get someone to look after the fish make sure you tell them EXACTLY how much food to give your fish, better yet put them in little containers with dates on them

You can leave your fishes without any food. Thats what i did with mine. They lasted for 2 and a half weeks and were fine when i came back. I heard too much bad stuff about the blocks and automatic feeders. Try it.

You can leave fish yes for 10-14 days but it's not recomended esp for small fish ir fry. Any longer than 14 days is not good.

In many fish if the lineing of the gutt closes it's amost impossible to get them back again, and sadily they die from starvation, although they may still be trying to eat.

We arrived back from vacation and found the gel feeder completely gone, water condition good, and everyone still alive! Well, I've only seen 1 fry so far, but it's certainly gotten bigger. It's big enough to look like a mini-fish (with tiny fins & color starting to show) vs. a tadpole... I'd say more than 1/4 inch but less than 1/2 inch long. Pics when I can catch it...

and of course, one of our platies looks pregnant... AGAIN...

I just happened upon the fry!
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And here's a pic of our twin-bar platy... it's dark, but you can see her shape. Pregnant, yes?
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She's gunna drop and rather soon, so you'll end up with more fry!

Wish you could get the gel blocks in Australia. All I can get are these annoying things that contain little colourful bits of flour that no self respecting fish would eat and clog up my filters with plaster. The last time I used them I had two filter crashes and I had to cycle fish in. Enough to drive you bananas.

Now you know why i trust them! They are the only feeders that i suggest to people, i would never suggest a plaster one, last time i did, i came home to a cloudy tank, smelly water, and white powder all over the place. I mdidnt have a test kit then, but i'd hate to see what it came up with!

And she did! Just 2 days ago... we've seen 9 at one time hiding up in some floating hornwort. They've now since scattered, with 2 regularly hanging out in the hornwort up top while the others are lurking in the dark shadows of the bottom of our tank. I'm assuming the 2 mollies we have took care of any others (our platy looked like she was holding more than 9).

The 1 fry from the previous batch is still going strong and growing like a weed! I'm amazed at how fast they grow.

And of course, our red wag is looking preggers now. I may look into getting another small fry tank!

When you have a few of varying sizes, you will find that more fry survive. Its like the fish see one a little smaller than the one they know they can't catch so they let it go. Each one has another one just a little bigger so most of them are safe. I'm not sure that's what happens but I do know that's the outcome.

This post has been edited by OldMan47: May 25 2008, 11:29 AM

congrats on your fry and a successfull vacation with a feeder gel block

yay!

This post has been edited by omega59: May 26 2008, 03:20 PM

And how true that statement is! So it looks like we have at least 10 fry of varying sizes. One who's about a month old and starting to swim with the big fish, a set of maybe 5 that are around 3 weeks, and the rest that are around 1 week old. It's crazy seeing all of the babies, especially come feeding time. Rather soon I'm going to put them in a tank of their own. I'm hoping I'll be able to sex them at some point and keep them separated by sex... one can dream, right?

Here's the month-old...
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Here's a week-old, swimming by our snail...
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NICE!