1 Day Old Fry With 3 Week Old Fry? Updated 24th May!

[LilMuppet]

My eight platy fry are now exactly three weeks old and now the platy has dropped her second lot. Would there be more chance of the fry surviving in the net breeder or is the age difference too much?

If I'm right in thinking, her third lot should be another 3 weeks away by which time the first lot of platys will be released and the net breeder free to use, considering I've only seen two platy fry I don't mind waiting for the third lot if the chances of them getting along in the net breeder is small.

 

[fmxmatt]

My eight platy fry are now exactly three weeks old and now the platy has dropped her second lot. Would there be more chance of the fry surviving in the net breeder or is the age difference too much?

If I'm right in thinking, her third lot should be another 3 weeks away by which time the first lot of platys will be released and the net breeder free to use, considering I've only seen two platy fry I don't mind waiting for the third lot if the chances of them getting along in the net breeder is small.

I'm not sure of the size of platy fry, but if they're anything like guppy fry, then you should be fine. I've got guppy fry ranging from 1 day to 2 months in my tank.

 

[LilMuppet]

They are quite big for three weeks as they were a small lot ( 8 ) but I'd say they were no more than the what is the 'norm' for a four week old platy.

I'll wait until this evening as I've moved lots of of the plants so they one side of the top has good coverage. Hopefully they'll group there or behind the net breeder so I have a chance to catch them. The last two tries didn't work!

 

[modaz]

yep they will be perfectly fine together i ve platy fry ranging from 8 weeks and 2 days old together at the moment in the fry tank

 

[LilMuppet]

Well I've put one of them in the net breeder, the other one I can't find, so either it is a small batch or someone was very hungry!

My three week platys are looking brilliant now, beautiful colours. I bought a Platy book to help but it has to be returned due to damage.

 

[LilMuppet]

Update

I never learn.

We put the lights off an hour or two ago, so I checked the tank thinking I probably wouldn't see the fry I couldn't net earlier.

I saw him, only it wasn't him as I'm sure it looked different; means there are at least 3 fry in the tank. I caught him after a struggle and then put him in the breeder. Looked at the breeder and in front of it was the fry I was originally looking for. He put up a fight but I got him in the end.

About to turn the light off after another successful evening catching and one appeared from nowhere! It was between the breeder and the glass - a 1-2cm gap so I had to encourage the stubborn little thing to swim around a corner of the breeder where I could get to him. He is now also in the net. Making it four 1 day old fry, eight 3 week old fry.

I mentioned today that the other platys looked suspiciously big (we have 4 females) and this lot look quite different (lack of black marks like previous lot). How long is the maximum people have known for a platy to take to give birth? Can she 'stop' for instance if she was disturbed and then continue to release fry a few hours later?

With 12 fry it will now be impossible to keep them all at full size without becoming majorly overstocked unless our older generation of fish (5-6 years of age {Filament Barb, Corys, Shark}) decide their time has come. Hopefully our lfs will take some of them and give us a small reduction off whatever we buy (food wise). It's a shame no family or friends have taken up the hobby!

Everytime I close my eyes now I have a set of fry eyes looking at me.

 

[modaz]

fry hunting is the best thing.

glad you found some more, its common for the fry to make their way to the breeder and have a good look in at the prisioners lol

mine dropped 47 fry about 3 months ago and the rest range between 20 and 40 per drop, yes they will hold on a bit if they feel threatened but platy can give birth over several days at times, it depends on the fish. my twinbar drops all hers within an hour each time and ive a sunset that drops over 4-6 hours , but i have a MM platy that will drop one (excuse the pun ) or a few 3-4 days before she drops the rest and its a nightmare, just wish she would get it over and done with lol.
also if its the fishes first fry you will only get between 10 and 20 fry but this increases as they get older until they reach a point where this then declines , some turn infertile but some will continue to drop only a small amount of fry.

i know it sounds obvious but the bigger they are when pregnant the more fry they will drop but large drops tend to put the mother in bad stress and death during or soon after birthing is also common.

 

[LilMuppet]

Thanks for the info, I think one of my platys is dropping over a few days, either that or they are from two different platys, but only one looks like they've lost weight this morning.

I found another fry this morning, quite simple getting it caught but it wouldn't swim out of the net and into the breeder even with big encouragement, so some of the others started to go in there.

 

[clover]

you might be fine i have guppy fry living with all ages of other guppy fry even new born fry living with adults swimming about with them

 

[LilMuppet]

Well I found some more unless they are getting out of the net breeder. Either 7-8 as I'm not 100% sure I caught one of the fry first time around as another one was where I caught it from just a minute later. So that's 15-16 with 5 adults already. Next time I go to my lfs I'll ask if they'll take fry after a certain age as there is no point putting anymore in the breeder if they're going to have nowhere to go but overcrowd the tank!

 

[LilMuppet]

I'm guessing a female can't hold onto them for 2-3 days without good reason after having 8+ fry and this evening I looked at the fish - 1 platy in the middle of the 'nest' of plants at the top (a different platy to the one I noticed was slimmer and suspected mum to the other recent lot). Our Dwarf Gourami underneath awaiting for any meals to drop. I gave the Gourami a good telling off to get him to leave before attempting to catch some fry. I've got 3 more in the net. Means there are 15-19 in there now.

Kiss goodbye to another early night, in the morning if they rise and don't hide behind the breeder the Gourami will have them now he knows they are there. I'll wait another half an hour and see if any other fry have appeared. Even if there are none it is better than waking up in the morning and wondering whether there were more we could have saved.