Is my platt pregnant? Or prolapsing?

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RhianwenNix

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Hi guys,
My Platy fish has become a lot larger over the past month, obviously females are bigger than males anyway, but we were sure they were pregnant and the fish shop thought so too. We separated her but she never gave birth, and has a white thing poking out of her Anus sometimes. We placed her back into the tank soon after she didnā€™t give birth to reduce stress. Iā€™m not sure whether she is unwell, there is no coning of her scales, she passes poo etc and has no other behavioural changes except eating more. Iā€™ve attached a photo of her next to the male for size comparison, we got them both at the same time and they were the same size.
Thank you IA!
 

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Oh really? Just because sheā€™s been like this for a few weeks we started to think it had gone past 28 days! Thatā€™s amazing thank you. When would you recommend separating her, or not separate her at all, or just the fry? We have the box that has separation grills but remains in the main tank. This is her today.
 

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Those boxes are very stressful for the female; it is better to leave her in the tank and catch the fry to put them in the box once they are born. Lots of fine leaved plants (real or fake) will give the fry somewhere to hide.
 
Those breeding boxes are very stressful and should never be used for a livebearer about to give birth. Her instinct is to hide in amongst the plants, so a few handfuls of something bushy like Cabomba, Myriophyllum etc is the best environment for her and the fry.,
 
Great minds.... :)

28 days is the norm, but it can take a lot longer, up to three months apparently.
 
As already mentioned above, those boxes are very stressful. They keep the mother out in the open with nowhere to hide, when her instincts are telling her she needs to hide. Those things can actually cause premature birth and even the death of the mother.

Edit... just realised you may have meant for the fry. It would be ok for fry at first. :)
Platies donā€™t normally eat their fry, so it really depends on other tankmates.
 
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Edit... just realised you may have meant for the fry. It would be ok for fry at first.
Yes for the fry (only). Convenient : no need to heat fry water. Mine has so fine net that even nauplies cannot go through.
 
Thank you all so much for your help! We have a well planted tank and she began hiding more over the last few days and gave birth last night/early morning! We separated the fry and have at least 35 at mo! Obviously we are expecting deaths as per normal, but we have separated them from other tank mates. Thank you all!
 

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