How do you deal with fry?

[sharkweek178]

I have one livebearer, a male platy. I wouldn't mind getting him some platy friends. But what do you do for population control? How do you deal with all the babies?

 

[Alice B]

tetras will eat the babies. Adult platies will eat the babies. I really don't get very many unless I overfeed

 

[Colin_T]

Just have a group of males and you won't get babies.

 

[GaryE]

I've never liked all male livebearer tanks. But all you need is a mild mannered opportunistic species in with them. My platys don't eat their own fry in a well set up tank, but they eat the fry of other species. Most fish seem to compete that way.

 

[Lynnzer]

Take them to your LFS and get a credit note for them to use for something else. I do it quite regularly but for shrimp at present.

 

[emeraldking]

All options already given overhere...

 

[jonny-5]

My fry go to trade at LFS for food, i used to be regularly over stocked with fry, So bad i set up more tanks to cope. As my female guppys seem to have given up birthing now at 2 yrs old, Its not a problem. Just need the corys to stop now

 

[GaryE]

I took the answer here for granted, but thinking about it over my morning coffee... I've dealt with fry numbers by choosing the parents differently. If you get a little experience, you begin to see what everyone has, and what some people want. If you have fry from what everyone has, then fish breeding in your tanks are a problem. If you do some legwork and find fish that people can't get, fry are a great bonus. You grow them to sexable size and there's never a problem finding homes. Fish breeding becomes fun.

 

[NearMeBettas]

Get a group of males, a group of virgin females, 1 male to a 2+ female ratio, and sell or give away fry, or don't remove fry and the parents will most likely eat them. I do not like the last option though as why not just get an all-same-sex group if you are just going to let the fry die?