Help! Platy Giving Birth!

[hayleyann]

We've had our aquarium 2 weeks, and had our Platy since Saturday - we weren't planning on breeding!

She must have been pregnant when they sold her to us... we had no idea!

She's still giving birth as I type - is there anything makeshift I can use until I get a breeding thing tomorrow?

How can I get the tiny babies in?

Sorry for the jumbled question, we're a bit surprised!! Also posted in Emergencies!

 

[ccskitten]

Congratulations hayleyann. Do you have an container like an icecream tub that you could float in the tank fo the time being. Just scoop the fry up into a glass and put in the tub. Alternatively you could put something in the tank for the babies to hide in. Marbles along the back of the tank, something that floats. Even a lettuce leaf has wrinkles that fry can hide in. Alternatively if you have any plants you can uproot them so they float. Good luck

 

[hayleyann]

Congratulations hayleyann. Do you have an container like an icecream tub that you could float in the tank fo the time being. Just scoop the fry up into a glass and put in the tub. Alternatively you could put something in the tank for the babies to hide in. Marbles along the back of the tank, something that floats. Even a lettuce leaf has wrinkles that fry can hide in. Alternatively if you have any plants you can uproot them so they float. Good luck

Thank you for the advice!

I've put in a tupperware tub and filled it with some water from the tank - we've managed to catch 10 of them so far, which I feel better about rather than leaving them to an unknown fate with our Betta.

We've just turned off our aquarium light - I'm not sure this is right or not? Also, should we feed them something now?

Off to read a bit more about it!

 

[OldMan47]

Lights out is a good idea until you have a chance to catch any you want to keep. The tupper container will work if you change a large part of the water in it every day. I think I would try to pour some of the water from the container and refill from the tank.
You are also facing the issue of fish in a brand new tank. That means that there will be a build up of ammonia and / or nitrites in the main part of the tank. If you can, you should probably do large, 30% or more, changes of water daily until you can get that tank properly cycled for your fish. It is a common mistake that new fish keepers make but it needs to be dealt with. The water change is done by draining some water and then refilling with dechlorinated water the same temperature as the tank water. If you have not already found it, there is a link in my signature area to a thread on how to do fish-in cycling. That will save you having to search for the thread.

 

[hayleyann]

Again, thank you

We were pleased to see that the fry in the tupperware box were fine this morning, and even the fry that we couldn't catch in the tank are OK. We'll have another attempt at trying to get them later. We have 20 overall - 10 in the box and 10 in the tank.

DF has now been to get a breeding trap from LFS and been home to install it, so the fry have a new home!


I'm also currently treating the water for whitespot - with the daily water changes, should I put some extra whitespot meds in each day? I'm meant to treat every 4 days, and the next treatment is due Thursday. I especially don't want the fry to get it.

 

[Miah002]

My platys were breeding. Originally i thought i had three. One died after 2 weeks.

The other two are still alive. Their two months old and there quite big but yesterday i was looking in the tank and found 8 more babies.

They keep on swimming into the filter and then coming back out.

 

[hayleyann]

I think she had a few more this morning, but no more tonight.

We've got around 20 in the breeding trap now, and for the time being I'm just feeding them a tiny bit of flake food, crushed really small.

Cross fingers!

 

[OldMan47]

My best advice for treating white spot while still in a cycle would be to do a big water change the next time you are supposed to add the treatment and then dose back up to the prescribed medication level. Unfortunately, anything you do that reduces the treatment time will mean that the whitespot will be almost guaranteed to return. If you deal with whitespot on an adult it will almost always recover and be fine, but if the fry manage to pick up the parasite their chances are not very good. A consistent tank treatment is a must to avoid that happening to the fry.