I am sort of new to this "raising fish" thing. I had a bunch of guppies when I was little and my mom would buy some sort of "floating plant" (which she referred to as seaweed) and we would use that for the guppy fry.
This time (with my own tank as an adult) I am trying to do a little better, but I do have a couple of questions... I hope someone can answer them!

I have a female guppy and a female dwarf platy that are pretty much going to, from what I can tell, give birth right around the same time. My dwarf platy might actually give birth today! Her signs are swimming real fast around the tank and hiding in the plants and "cave" that I have provided. At first I tried to put her in a breeder, the one that would allow the fry to fall to the bottom out of harms way, but she FREAKED out when I put her in there about a week ago... So I decided that was not good for her or the fry. So I have moved her (the dwarf platy) and my pregnant guppy to a separate tank. So I had come across a couple of questions that I need answered. Is it okay if I have the guppy fry and dwarf platy fry live together?
What if the dwarf platy has her fry before the guppy female? They are well-fed in the female tank so I was hoping that they will not eat any of the fry. But I was not sure if the female guppy would try to eat the dwart platy fry just out of spite so that her fry will be able to take over the tank?
I was thinking of taking the dwarf platy out, after she has her fry, and moving her back to the big tank. And then placing the female guppy in the floating breeder tank, but still keep her in the fry tank.
It would be GREAT if I could have some answers to these questions... Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!!

adult Guppies and platys will eat their own fry and each others fry.
Both Guppiy and platy fry will be fine together.

If you keep the adults together and keep them well feed and in a well planted tank for the fry to hide, you should save quite a of them

the fry will be fine together,if one has its babies before the other,you could always thwen remove the one that has had its babies back to your main tank.
if you add some plants for coverage it will help protect the fry from the mums when they are born

I'm going to join in and give the same advice you already have. After one of the fish gives birth, remove it to improve the chances of all the fry. Once the second gives birth, remove it too. This will leave only the fry together in the tank and in a few weeks of good food and frequent water changes, the fry should be big enough to go into the main tank.

This post has been edited by OldMan47: Jul 17 2008, 01:59 AM

have they had their babies yet?
i have 30 guppy fry and 4 baby plattys.
xo

They haven't had their babies yet!! It's driving me crazy! I keep thinking they are SO CLOSE to having them... but they are still holding the little ones in.
I have a feeling that the dwarf platy is really close tho. She has "squared off" and she seems to be keeping close to the bottom of the tank... *fingers crossed*
One question tho... is she supposed to have a dark gravid spot like the guppies get? My platy is a golden color but she does not seem to have a darkened spot. But she's realllll fat and I can see little dots (I think they are eyes) in her belly... but no dark gravid spot???

The female guppy has maybe a week or so left. Her gravid spot is still too light to be THAT close! But I could definitely see the eyes in her belly about a week ago! So I know they are IN THERE!

I'm so excited!!! I just want them to come TODAY!!!! I'm tired of waiting.... haha

This might sound a little weird... but my fish had the EXACT same number of babies that yours did!!!
weird..... haha
My guppy had about 30 babies and my dwarf platy had 6 babies but 2 of them died the first night, so now I have 4 of them left!

I'm sorry this response is so late! Congratulations on the babies though! Sorry you didn't get too many Platies, but trust me, there will be more to come!

In terms of the gravid spot, it's common for the lighter colored fish (especially the yellow/golden) to not have the same dark gravid spot as most Guppies have. It's nothing to worry about. My Platies would always turn a faint red, but that's it. If you can see the fry's eyes, that's a much better indicator.

Congratulations again!

for some reason after I had seperated my male and female dwarf platy (so that she could have her babies) the male has wanted NOTHING to do with the female.
I'm not sure what I should do... They have been in the big tank together (with other fish) but the male dwarf platy has just been hanging around the normal sized male platys.
Before I separated them, the male was ALWAYS around the female. Since I had placed her back into the tank with him and the other fish, he has ignored her ever since. I have not seen the male even look the females way... I was thinking about maybe moving them into a separate tank (of just them) just until they re-connect with each other, but I am not sure if it would matter!
Any idea about that??? Thanks