Dwarf Platies Breeding

[lljdma06]

I have had a quintet of adult platies in my Dutch scaped 8g since late October. Recently, I was rewarded with my diligence (2x a week, 30% water changes, the cultivation of plants, feeding them food that I'm allergic too ) with 3 lovely little fry. The female dropped more than a week ago, but I've only now been able to get pictures of the fry, they are very fast. But I think the threat of them being food has passed, I saw them feeding with the adults and had a nice photo opportunity. Of course, of the 5,000 million photos that I took, only 4 came out alright.

I get the impression these fish do not drop much fry. The female is gravid again, but as far as I can tell, she is only carrying about 4 fry. This may be due to the reduced body mass. The largest fish is about 1.33" including the tail, but the body mass is about 1/3 of an adult female platy. This difference could account for the size of the drop.

The tank has plenty of cover, so the fry have been doing very well, feeding on micro organisma and crushed food. Now for the pictures.

Mother, perhaps?

Father, again a "?"

Junior

Size comparison

Tank shot, so you know what they are in.

Anybody else have thoughts or experiences with these fish they'd like to share. I'm all ears, well eyes actually, and have heard several theories about this little fish.

llj

 

[alisdairkr]

We discovered 5 fry on Boxing day morning in our community tank. A few days later we realised there were six.
Since then, 3 have thrived and are now plump and 1.5 cms long. The other three though just stayed tiny, and now two of them have died.

Is this normal?

 

[theotheragentm]

With the same environment some fry will just thrive and grow while others will grow slowly. The Dwarf Platies do indeed drop fewer fry from my experience. Great shots. Congratulations on the fry. Another thing you might want to try is a couple shrimp pellets. They sink and break apart pretty easily, making them a bit messy, but they fall to the bottom where fry can get to them a lot of times, safe from the mouths of the adults.

 

[lilfishie]

awww they look sooo cute congrats

 

[lljdma06]

With the same environment some fry will just thrive and grow while others will grow slowly. The Dwarf Platies do indeed drop fewer fry from my experience. Great shots. Congratulations on the fry. Another thing you might want to try is a couple shrimp pellets. They sink and break apart pretty easily, making them a bit messy, but they fall to the bottom where fry can get to them a lot of times, safe from the mouths of the adults.

Thanks for the imput, beat you to it. I prepare a special mix for my fish, pellets, flakes, etc... and sinking shrimp pellets is part of the mix. Those are great! I started using them for my corydoras a while back and find that my fry respond well to them. Makes good plant fertiliser too. I also use the sinking algae wafers for plecos too. I break those up into smaller pieces. Platies need their greens.

Thanks for the complements. I'm glad others have had them breed as well. There was a notion a while back that they were sterile.

llj

 

[Beemeeup]

Brilliant pictures - i have had about 25 young platy survive since begin of november (6 adults in tank)
i just let the law of the jungle decide on the numbers to survive - no special treatment other than fry food and plenty of plant cover especially on the surface..

i think even more brilliant is the quality of your plants - how do you keep them so bright and free from algae?

 

[lljdma06]

Brilliant pictures - i have had about 25 young platy survive since begin of november (6 adults in tank)
i just let the law of the jungle decide on the numbers to survive - no special treatment other than fry food and plenty of plant cover especially on the surface..

i think even more brilliant is the quality of your plants - how do you keep them so bright and free from algae?

Well, platy poop sure makes a difference! That is grade A fertiliser right there. Otherwise, the same things that keep my fish happy (clean water, good filtration, light, food). I'll admit, this is a wierd tank, I really don't do much with it except water changes 2x a week. I don't dose any fertilisers and I prune when leaves get out of place. This is a low-light tank, so it is much easier to maintain, but I won't lie, I do have a smidge of algae. There's some thread algae on the Hemianthus, but only a few strands which I remove when I do a water change, otherwise there isn't much to write home about.

Thanks for the complements on the pictures, I do the best I can with my camera. You should really take a look at the Planted section, there are pictures there that are really incredible. I am not really very good.

llj

EDIT: Oh, I just wanted to clarify. I've bred lots of livebearers and other fish before, so it's not like I don't know how to take care of fry. I'm just curious if anybody else has had luck with the so called "dwarf" strain. My first post wasn't clear in that department.

 

[HODDY]

i love the fourth picture down of the big platy and the likle ickle fry.Looks like there abut to swim different ways.

 

[lljdma06]

Just a bit of an update, the same female dropped again. There are about three fry, but I didn't get a good look. They swim well, and are hiding in my moss and Hemianthus. I may catch them and raise them in my 2.5g planted tank until they are large enough to not be eaten, about 1/2-2/3 inch long, or large enough to swim faster than the adults.

llj

 

[theotheragentm]

Congrats. Fry will be overrunning the tank soon.

 

[lljdma06]

Congrats. Fry will be overrunning the tank soon.

Don't I know it! Either she's getting better, or some fry ended up high-protein snacks last time, but I was able to "rescue" 5 small fry, a good increase from three, though I still don't think she drops much. The fry are too big. I put them, along with an older fry in my 2.5g planted pico. The older one should teach them the feeding ropes by example. Poor Mime, my betta, was moved to another tank. I figure, I'll raise them in there until they are about a month old and then move them back with the parents, who don't seem to eat them once they are about that age (too big). Once they reach about an inch or so, I'll release them into other tanks.

Of course, I have more photos.

These fry are a bit lighter than the other batch, and take after their mother. They have also just realized that there is nothing big enough to eat them in this tank, so they are much more outgoing.

 

[corey01]

that tank is amazing! ideal livebearer setup!