Cute Little Platy Fry

[FreshwaterFishie]

Hi! I haven't posted for awhile. But:
I checked the tank a few days ago and I thought I was dreaming...(I have had dreams about pets breeding, the hamster one was scary -shivers-.) Anyway, I see 3 little gold fry swimming at the bottom of the tank. They are so cute! It has been 3 days and they have done fine with the 4 Mickey Mouse Platys, 6 Zebra Danio, and 4 Otocinclus. I do not have another tank for them to go into. But, as I said before...they are doing fine and haven't been chased by any of the fish. I fed them finely crushed flakes that floated to the bottom and they ate them right away. There is a brave one who often attempts to swim with the Oto or go to the top at feeding time. He usually returns to the small little fry school before reaching the top.

The mommy fish was HUGE, I thought it was a boy. I swore there was an anal fin...I checked again (well, duh. It's obvious now) and it is a girl. She is still pretty big and transparent, so I can see little dark orange circles in her stomach still. How long does it take to have all the fry??? Also, how long does it take for them from the breeding to actually having the fry?

Thanks! They are to cute

She is in the back, you can see how big she was compared to the male:

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The average platy pregnancy is about 3-4weeks, you can tell when a female platy is about to give birth because the area located at the back of her stomache turns very dark(known as the gravid patch) and the female will spend longer periods of time on her own amoungst the plants to hide from other fish who will try to eat her fry as she gives birth to them.
If you only have 1female platy you should get another 1-2 at least because the minimum amount of females to a single male is 2-3females per male, male platys can harrass females an aweful lot particualy when they about to give birth and this can result in pregnancy issues for the female fish if she is put under too much stress, so its very important to have enough females to divert the males attentions .
Be careful with saving fry though as they only take 3months to sexually mature on average and you can quickly become over run with them considering how little time it takes for the females to reproduce, you can easily end up with overstocking and inbreeding problems- so no matter how cute those fry are, make sure you put the best interests of your current adult fish first before you decide to look after those fry .

 

[Mo_loves_fish]

More then one of the fish could be pregnant. Keep watch for more fry b/c especially is you have a gravel tank. the fry will be hiding every where they can. So Keep an eye on the fry and the mommy! Good Luck!