My platy's been pregnant for 3 months!

[Lalah281]

Can anyone tell me what they think might be going on with this platy? She's been like this for about 3 months now.

I had two very pregnant looking females and neither seemed to be dropping after about 6 weeks. I added a little aquarium salt to the water and one of them had 20 fry a couple of days later. She is now looking like she's ready to have another lot, but this one still hasn't dropped any.

I'm assuming that any fry she had in there would now be dead, surely? So what would happen in this case? She seems happy enough otherwise.

I've got the two females and the fry all living together in a separate aquarium. I feed them a mixture of powdered flakes, bloodworm, and occasionally boiled broccoli (which the big one loves).

I add a little Tap Safe to any water changes and also drop Absolute Pearls in the water (at least one a week).

 

[Demeter32]

Live bearers can and will hold their young till they feel safe enough to give birth. Try adding more plants to provide a bit of shelter for her.

If that doesn't work then maybe she's just not ready, though I'd say she looks plenty ready.

 

[Colin_T]

She could have worms. Livebearers regularly carry worms and can be full of worms and it makes them look pregnant. You can try treating all your fish with Praziquantel, it will kill any tapeworms in the fish. Then you can try Levamisole for thread/ round worms.

These 2 deworming medications will not harm fish, plants or filter bacteria.

 

[Lalah281]

Live bearers can and will hold their young till they feel safe enough to give birth. Try adding more plants to provide a bit of shelter for her.

If that doesn't work then maybe she's just not ready, though I'd say she looks plenty ready.

Yeah, there's lots of live plants in there. I had got them (including floating ones) before the first lot of fry arrived. There's also a large tower, which is a good hiding place. The other one I noticed was hiding inside a treasure chest before she gave birth.

Do you think they could still be alive then after all this time? Although, on thinking about it, I'm guessing if they were dead she would have aborted them.

 

[Lalah281]

She could have worms. Livebearers regularly carry worms and can be full of worms and it makes them look pregnant. You can try treating all your fish with Praziquantel, it will kill any tapeworms in the fish. Then you can try Levamisole for thread/ round worms.

These 2 deworming medications will not harm fish, plants or filter bacteria.

Thanks. I didn't realise fish could get worms. I'll order some now and see how it goes.

The other one was very small in comparison and she had 20 fry. I've been joking that this one's going to have 100 She's massive!

 

[Colin_T]

female platies can have 100+ young so you never know

 

[Aniket]

I dont know much but do you have heater in tank? Because it happened with my friends molly. We both brought pregnant mollies. My molly gave birth to fry but his molly was not giving birth. He kept her in pond. So i bring some warm water and kept her for hour and she gave birth to 40 fries.