7 Fry In A Newly Cycled Tank

[stiffler69]

Hi all just had a very good suprise 1 of my female platys gave birth to some fry and i managed to get 7 of them into the breeding net this was all i could see in the tank and even went to a extreme of moving the plants just so i could catch them. Now even bigger of a suprise is the tank is actually only 2 weeks old it cycled for 7 days and i introduced 3 platys on the the 8th day so they have actually only been in the tank for 6 days in total. 2 of them looked pregnant when we purchased them but we were not expected them to give birth so quickly and. Ive put a new planting area near the heater so if anymore come there is plenty of places for them to hide in the warmth since this tank is at my mothers house i wont be there to see them so hopefully if anymore are due they will go straight into hiding in the plant area.

The question i have is how long is it good to leave the young platys in the beeding net

And also i put the two females in the breeding net this afternoon but neither give birth to anymore fry im thinking that they have done a full drop and only 7 survived the adult fish could i be wrong and they needed a little more time in the net?

Had this in the newby section but think its more suited to here

 

[12azor]

Leave the adults in the breeding net for maybe another 24 hours just to make sure they don't drop anymore. Don't leave them in to long however as it may cause stress to the fish.
As for the fry I would only put them in the breeding net for a good few weeks. Until they are just big enough that the adults can't eat them.

I had a group of fry that some where put in the net and some wern't. The one's in the net were 3x smaler than those that wern't pput in there. So just a little bit of advice.

 

[modaz]

they have more than likely finished dropping the fry so really shouldnt be in there, the stress together with the recent fry drop will be to much for them and could cause problems, any living thing has to rest after birthing so i would let them out and dont worry b/c they will produce more eggs with 12 hours and again will be pregnant if they have any stored sperm.

keeping fry in the net is fine, but their growth rate will be slowed down and platy as a general rule grow much slower than most livebearers anyway, they are not like guppy fry as they tend to go straight into hiding and stay there until they know that they are no longer at any risk, a free swimming platy fry in the tank with good cover and live plants to obtain a good diet from will grow so much quicker and into stronger fish when adults. but im not saying that what youve done with your fry is wrong, just giving you both sides.

good luck with your fry

 

[Alistriwen]

You can release them as soon as they are big enough not to be eaten however if you release them as soon as they are able they will breed. If you dont want your fry to be pregnant or the growth of your fry to be stunted you will want a seperate tank to raise them in and a way to seperate the males and females.

 

[LauraFrog]

I quickly became overrun with fry. I have three 3-month-old platy fry, and they are still too small to let them into the main tank because the molly has a BIG FAT MOUTH. So I'm raising fry in buckets at the moment and I've had virtually no deaths. Livebearers go for quantity, not quality, and so I expect the occasional fish with whatever wrong with it to die for the first few months - and that's all I've had. I change the water frequently to avoid ammonia buildup because you can't cycle a bucket - but they are all alive and kicking. They do grow slowly but I have molly fry as well now. They're way bigger than platies at birth.

Never raised guppy fry, I had a bunch of guppies once but they were all males.

 

[stiffler69]

Hi i realised that netting them up was going to be a hard and long process so i have today been and purchased a new tank 21 litres a 25watt heater and small filter i used 50% water from my original tank and toped up with treated tap water my plan now is to leave it for a at least a week to mature then get the water tested, and this will then be used to keep my fry in and when i notice another female is either giving birth or about to give birth she will go in with the fry and hopefully wont eat any.

Do you have heaters for your buckets with the fry in this may be why there growth is slow if the water isnt at a good temperatur they grow slower