Fry Question

[TBar87]

I'm still pretty new to the fish world and have had my tank set up for about 7 weeks now. I have been blessed with 2 platy fry that are about a month old now. One is in a breeding tank (the hard plastic thing that hangs on the side of the tank) and the other is hiding out in the plastic grass stuff after an escape from the breeding tank while i was doing a water change.

My biggest question is how old/big should they be to be considered safe in my tank? Any other tips or advice welcome.

My community tank includes:

10 neon tetras
3 guppies
4 platies
5 sarpae tetras
1 cory cat
1 chinese algae eater

thanks,

Todd

 

[Annastasia]

The general rule of thumb is when they are too big to fit in the biggest fish's mouth. Or a little after if you are worried about aggression.

 

[TBar87]

Thank you so much for the reply. I was just coming back to post that i had found the answer in another post and then i saw your reply here.

Thanks again.

Todd

 

[MishyTheFishBreeder]

They should be alright now because they are 1 month old and the cory's or CAE's wont eat them seeing there vegetarians so dont worry you should be able to add them back in.

 

[Annastasia]

They should be alright now because they are 1 month old and the cory's or CAE's wont eat them seeing there vegetarians so dont worry you should be able to add them back in.

CAEs can become quite aggressive when they get older though. Depending on how big the CAE is, the fry should be okay. If the CAE is near full-grown, I wouldn't put the fry in, as it could become an easy target.

 

[MishyTheFishBreeder]

They should be alright now because they are 1 month old and the cory's or CAE's wont eat them seeing there vegetarians so dont worry you should be able to add them back in.

CAEs can become quite aggressive when they get older though. Depending on how big the CAE is, the fry should be okay. If the CAE is near full-grown, I wouldn't put the fry in, as it could become an easy target.

I knew there was something I was missing. Thanks for soughting it out.

 

[TBar87]

The CAE is a young fish, only about 1 inch as of right now. The one fry that is "on its own" still hides in the plants so i might wait another week or so before i set the other little guy free. How soon can you sex these little guys? They both appear to be female at this point but i didnt know if that changed as they got older or if i can tell now that is what they are.

thanks,

Todd

 

[rEvolution27]

How big is your tank? cories like to like in schools of 3 or more.

 

[TBar87]

It is a 29 Gal. Tank. I do plan on getting more cories but so far have been unable to find any at either of our 2 LFS and i dont really care to buy from a department store.

I have been thinking about "trading" in the CAE in the future when he gets bigger. I just got him to help with an aglae problem but from what i have read on other posts here the brown algae problem will take care of itself in time.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

Todd

 

[MishyTheFishBreeder]

Well sexing them is easy as they grow older the male will start to get more colour then the female so just look out for the colour on them.

 

[Annastasia]

The CAE is a young fish, only about 1 inch as of right now. The one fry that is "on its own" still hides in the plants so i might wait another week or so before i set the other little guy free. How soon can you sex these little guys? They both appear to be female at this point but i didnt know if that changed as they got older or if i can tell now that is what they are.

thanks,

Todd

Sexing can happen as early as 2-3 months. They will all appear to be females, but then they will become males later on. I'm not sure if you'll get any males, since you only have two, but in answer to your question; No, you can't accurately sex them yet.