Okay so now that I know my nitrates were too high...I did another water change. I did it differently than I usually do in the sense that I pulled out the BIG decoration/hidey hole to vacuum under it because I know they've been hiding in there.

So, Im vacuuming along and start chasing a piece of flakey food (there weren't many btw) to get it sucked up..only to realize that I wasn't chasing down a flake food...it was a FRY! too late, it got sucked up but I DID save it before dumping the bucket.

I didnt even know we had babies! Not even sure which kind of babies they are! The other day I was thinking the platy MAYBE looked pregnant but she sure wasn't pregnant enough to be giving birth yet...not even close. But the fry I have (have seen 2 so far) are alive somehow even if they were premature. They are hiding down in the gravel and stuff...is that okay?

I did screw up last night and after having unplugged the heater because the tank was too warm...I forgot and left the a/c on in the room last night so when I got up this am the tank was only 72 degrees. Would that have caused a premature birth?

another thing I also found...was an empty snail shell...my "big" (not big) snail that I got way back when I ordered the mature media online. what happened to the snail that used to be INSIDE the shell?