Hatching/bredding Fish

[Ukfan]

How do you tell if your fish are pregnaunt?
Well my female platy have really big bellies and today I brought a floating fish hatchery. I'm going to pop the ones init to see if they will lay the eggs.

But how do you know if they are?

 

[TayTay]

You can tell if a fish is pregnant by whether they have a gravid spot or not. A gravid spot is pretty much a dark blue/black spot or area on the bottom of your fishes stomach. Also, Platy's are live bearers, as in they give birth to live, swimming fry. My suggestion is to get a fry tank to put them in once the mother is done giving birth, or you can keep her in the tank with the other platy's and let them have a banquet and eat all the fry. It just depends on whether you want to keep all the fry or not. Also, just a fair warning, platy's are the rabbits of the fish world, a female platy can store sperm for months, so be prepared as platy's can fill a tank in a month with fry.

 

[Ukfan]

Yeah but I've had my platy for like 2 months and I not seen any fry lol

What exactly do you mean by a black spot?

can you show me a picture or something

 

[BigC]

Sometimes the gravid spot (dark area on abdomem between pelvic and anal fins) is hard to define in Xiphophorus maculatus (platy)
But you will notice she is pregnant by her body shape, when birth is imminent the shape of her abdomem, from behind the gills to the anal vent will look more boxy, square shaped rather than slender and rounded.
http/www.faszination-lebendgebaerende.de...atyweibchen.jpg
Regards
BigC

 

[Ukfan]

yeah mine are pretty much like that too, but should I leave them there over night? incase they lay eggs

 

[BigC]

incase they lay eggs

They don't lay eggs they give birth to fully functional fish fry. (livebearers)
If there are other fish in the tank the fry will be eaten for sure, commercial breeding traps for platties are too small. Try buying some plastic pan scrubs and unfurling them and placing them in your tank.so as to afford the baby fish some shelter from the mothers canabalistic tendancies. Ideally another tank would be the ticket.

 

[Ukfan]

dam if only i had another tank

So they give birth to actuall fish not eggs?
I'm not sure if the fish are ready to give birth, but they have black spot and a pretty fat then usual.

 

[Ukfan]

how big should the tummy be?

 

[Ukfan]

Here are my pictures that I took thsi morning

the fish have not layied any fry yet and have been in there over night

Thats my tank with fish

This is

one of my female platy which I think is pregnaunt

these are the two platy which I think are near enough ready to lay fry

more of them

what do you think?

 

[BigC]

Yeah not long now, my only worry is that the breeding trap is way too small for this species. I dont know who designed these things (they've been around for eons) but they seemed to have overlooked the size issue. The gold mottled one in the pic on its own looks like shes imminent.
Regards
BigC

 

[Ukfan]

Thats my worry too, its way to small al they can do is move round in ciricles but once they give birth i'm talking them out the poor things.

the one with the black spots and the gold body?

 

[Ukfan]

And one of my blue neon tetras is also pregnaut, so do you think I should add her into the same breeding thign as one of the others are in?

I also have a Marina Fish Net Breeder, chall I put that black spots and the gold body in that? Only thign i'm worried about is it might eat the fry once its given birth

 

[Ukfan]

Can anyone give em advice?

 

[kpintheshed]

incase they lay eggs

They don't lay eggs they give birth to fully functional fish fry. (livebearers)
If there are other fish in the tank the fry will be eaten for sure, commercial breeding traps for platties are too small. Try buying some plastic pan scrubs and unfurling them and placing them in your tank.so as to afford the baby fish some shelter from the mothers canabalistic tendancies. Ideally another tank would be the ticket.

don't livebreeders only lay eggs if the pregnancy
goes wrong ?

 

[ArauraDiscus]

Neon tetra are egg layers so a breeding trap is no good in any way. Neons are fairly difficult to breed with small fry and a high overturn rate. IN the wild around 80 percent of neons die each year from what I understand, so they aren't particularly hardy, and you will save a lot of money buying them from the local fish store, than raising them yourself and buying the seperate tank for them and the food they need.