We bought our daughter a tank for her fourth birthday and put in some Plattys and Swordtails to cycle.

Tank is now in it's 6th week and on Sunday evening our eldest daughter spotted fry.

We watched and all in all she (one of the swordtails) had 4 babies. Sadly within minutes of the fry being born she died (is there anything we could have done?)

Now we are in a dilemma, having no experience whatsoever of fry .. and no idea what we are doing.. and no empty tank which is cycled!

We have a small 17litre tank.. but its not currently running so not even close to cycled.

The fry are still in the original tank, along with 4 platty s and a swordtail (presumably Daddy)
We have been putting brine shrimp eggs in the tank along with the usual feed for the fish and the fry seem to eat well, tank also has plants in there which they like to hide in.

For now they seem to be surviving ok. Will the other fish eat them? any suggestions on how to keep them safe and how to feed them?

hey, congrats on your babies.....
yes the other fish will eat them, you can pop them in a breeding net in your tank until the spare tank cycles if you want to keep them, or if you are sure your current tank has finished the cycle (ie no ammonia reading, no nitrite reading, and nitrate reading above zero and less than 100- preferably less than 20), you can clone the filter from your current tank to your new tank.
In practical terms this means stealing a piece of media from your cycled filter (no more than half, and keep an eye on the readings in your established tank, as you're effectively stealing the bacteria from your good tank), and setting up a filter in your spare tank with the stolen media.
You can then put any new fry in the spare tank, but you will have to keep testing the stats in both tanks and doing water changes in both tanks to keep the stats within acceptable levels.
Your fry tank (if you choose to set it up), should really have daily 10% water changes anyway, to keep the conditions optimal for fry. You also need to feed your fry small amounts as often as possible through the day (4-6 times or so), which is another reason to keep the fry tank super clean.
You can feed them BBS, also finely crushed flake, and hard-boiled egg yolk mixed into water to create a fine suspension.
Your filter in the fry tank (if you go for the spare tank option rather than a breeding net), will need to be a simple air driven sponge filter, OR you will need to cover the intake of whatever filter you have with some stocking/panty hose or some coarse filter foam to stop the fry getting sucked up.
best of luck, don't stress if you lose some fry, you will have plenty more, trust me!

Thank you so much merry, hubby is going to get a breeding net in his lunch hour and pop home with it (seems like the fastest and safest solution) and in the meantime I will get the little tank cycling for a long term solution.

Your speedy and helpful reply is VERY much appreciated. My little one must be the youngest fish breeder ever , 4 years old and already at it! LOL

soz!

my 3 year old sis breeded her fish

second youngest, sorry to spoil ur excitement congratulations bu

(i have the same prob right now)