Ok, I started out with 14 platy fry that I moved to a 10 gallon nursery. Water perameters are fine and I keep the tank bear bottomed and clean every other day. Anyhow, I'm now down to 9 fry. The little ones are the ones that are dying off. The rest are a pretty darn good size except for 2 more whom are smaller. I'm feeding them 4 times a day. Are the little ones starving off? Or are there other issues I just don't know about?

Nep

Sounds to me like "natural selection". The smaller ones may not have been as developed as they should be. You'll want the larger, healthier ones anyway. I have Endlers' livebearers, and I only feed them twice a day. The fry are growing just fine. I don't have any platy fry yet, but I do have Blue and Blue Spot Platies that I wish would have some fry. I have only had them since Aug 2. I'll just be patient!

I have my Endlers in a 5.5 gallon with a flourescent light and floating plants. Hornwort and Egeria densa. They have been in there for three weeks now, no water changes. It is also bare bottom, but I do not use any filters. I let the plants clean the water. The bottom is a little dirty, but the tank water is very clear. The Endlers seem to be just fine. I think they like that I don't disturb them too much... Just a thought...

--Tim

Check the nitrates, ammonia that could be killign your fish. Good Luck

Nine is not a bad number.Like somebody had suggested,it's all about natural selection.Now to increase your chances of having a larger percentage of the fry survive,you have to make sure of a couple of things.........Start off with healthy mature females,that way there would be more well developed fry swimming around.Second,make sure you feed the fry as often as you can but,at the same time make sure that you feed them as little as possible decreasing the chances of polluting the water.Remember,it's better to feed them small quantities during the entire day each time than to feed them a lot only a couple of times.Which bring us to the third point.Make sure that the percentage of water being changed is not too high,doing so could upset the fry.Remember it's only a ten gallon tank,do not remove more than 10% of the water each time,and always use a water conditioner.
Another thing you may want to concider,if you have a lot of hideouts in your main tank,leave the babies there.Remember these are livebeares and they are mating all the time which translate into more babies

yeh its probably just natural selection out of my last 20 4 died

Thanks everyone! I checked my amonia and Nitrite and they were both fine. Only change 10% of the water everyother day or so, but the other day I did like 15%. Won't do that again. And I am using a water conditioner when I change the water. Hopefully no more deaths, but I think I'm gonna lose my 3 tiny ones eventualy.

Nep