Orca's 3 fry are now at 8 days old! At this rate I will be releasing them into the tank in another week @ 2 weeks old. Seems they should be big enough to not get bothered by the power filter. Every time I feed them tiny crushed up bits, I wait about 5 minutes or so and dip a corner of the net under the water and pull to one side and all of the old flake bits float away and the babies swim a bit hard to maintain their footing in the middle. I then gently lift up until there is a little water in and then submerge again a couple of times to work out their little fins and keep the hormones and ammonia and such away.
One of the fry is a bit smaller and had its tuxedo coat almost right off the bat. It is still much much more colored in than the other 2 fry that are larger. Maybe this indicates that the smaller darker fry may end up being a male and the two larger, not yet colored so well fry would be females. Only time will tell.
Oh yeah, and here is She Ra 'Princess of Power' a few days after some good water parameters and nutrition. She fits right in with Shere Khan, Necco and Storm. I wonder if Brutus, Skokie, Aurora and Orca are jealous that they didn't get moved to the 50 gallon . Eventually they will tho, since the 29 gallon will be mainly for fry and such.
It has been a long 4 week journey so far with my 29 gallon!
I am much happier with it now that it has live plants in it. It just looks so much better!
Here are the 3 versions my tank has been through in its short 4 week life as a fish tank (instead of it being used as a squirrel habitat O_O, yeah, I had to reseal it )
I have also picked up a new female 'blue wag platy'. She was the only one in a tank full of red wags. She escaped thru the pet store divider to the other side. The half of the tank she came form was riddled with ich and the tank I got her from she was the only one active with fer fins up. I decided to rescue the little beaut. I also picked up a giant breeder box that looks to have come with an awesome attachment that circulates water and, well, it's very fancy and very large. Once my platy start having fry from my males I will be using it. But it is better to have supplies on hand than to maybe forget them later!
I am having a bit of trouble coming up with a name for her tho....If anyone would like to throw out some names I would greatly appreciate it!!
I had to leave to Missouri for a 4 day weekend and decided to set the fry free into the 29 gallon tank. If anything were to happen to them I would have wanted them to enjoy the large tank instead of have only known the box. Naaa mean? So I took everyone out of the 29 gallon except Orca, and then picked She-Ra and Necco to go into the 29 gallon from my 50 gallon. She ra and Necco are pregs and I want their babes! And Orca will always stay in the 29 gallon because I sit next to it and i love her to bits and peices. Her stupid cute face is so cute!
So I let them into the tank and they seemed to be fine. I have a video of it, you can tell they are a bit scared but the quality is not that great. Click >>HERE<< to watch the video. So I came back 4 days later, this Monday and when I turned on the lights I thought I had no fish. I couldn't see any for a good 10 mins. They were just charging their batteries I guess because eventually everyone kicked in to gear and said hello and had a good feed. I look and look for the fry and I get worried I am not seeing any! MY BABES! Then I spot the little one. PHEW! ok. And then the big one appears from the stump . But where the middle child? There is came, out form the swords with a nip in its tail! Everyone was okay and they got a bit bigger indeed. Nobody was chasing anyone and the medium sized ones tail is growing back almost complete.
I will post pics of them shortly. They are 3 weeks as of yesterday. One is a beast growing like none of the others.
All of Orca's 3 original fry have made it to the 1 month mark! They are quite spry indeed . She has since had another batch (so these fry may actually be a bit older than i thought when i found them) but none of the 13 new babies had a pitch black coat right from the get go like the smallest of the 3 of her original batch. I will be keeping that one, so hopefully it wont be a male. Or ultimately I may just keep the one that looks most like Orca. She is so darn cute especially now that she isnt all bloat from babies up in her.
Orca's Fry At 1 Month Old 58 Second Video--->>> CLICK
At the end you see all three swimming together it is so nice to see.
Orca's newest batch of 13 fry before a breeder cleaning, you can see some black spots but nothing like the smallest fry pictured somewhere above in this thread in the original litter
Day One:
Day Three Before Box Cleaning you can see some black spots on one:
One of the babies is very thin and doesn't swim much. It is just wasting away . There is another slightly dark one that is not as skinny, but pretty skinny and swims a bit around. Oy it sucks seeing it so tiny stick thin and theres bit ol' plump ones and food is going right by it and it doesn't eat . Woe is me
I posted this somewhere else on the live bearer section but I need to put it in my journal. My platy Storm from whom I got from Walmart was looking pretty colossal. I videoed her because I have never personally seen one of my own platies reach this kind of gerth! The other platies around her are nice sized and fit, she is not over fed (not usually n e ways) but is heavily pregnant.
When I got home from work today I checked on my fry nets and noticed there are two actually on the outside of the net all trying to squish up in it and be safe. I rounded up my trusty li'l net and put one in each breeder net. Someone is giving birth....Storm still looks huge so I will have to see if she looks a bit more thin later on tonight. I mean if anyone it has got to be her. I can't wait to see if they will be at all interesting looking or to see who they really are's! Two surprise platy babies....cool . I could only find 2. But I really don't need that many more fry.
I don't want to be having all kinds of ages in my baby tank. I want them to all eventually be big enough to merge them into the larger tank or not be chased by mommy-to-be fishes that I want to birth in the smaller tank. I won't be birthing any in the breeders. I can't quite tell when they are going to give birth and i dont want to be putting them in and out of the breeder, ya know?
Video of Storm and her crazy huge baby belly --->>CLICK
So yeah storm is looking much different today. Alot more clear and no huge black gravid spot. I hope the two fry of hers have unusual coloring . She was mixed with other kind looking ones. I noticed one fry in the net with a black tint at the base of where the tail fin starts...i think this is indicating wag fins. Storm is a diluted vlue wag platy id say.
The two biggest of the oldrst three fry are attempting to eat food from the surface with the adults . So cute <3
Here is the original litter from the start of this thread. They are so big now! Orca is the mom upper right and all three of her fry are right next to her on her left ♡♥♡♥
. Eventually they will tho, since the 29 gallon will be mainly for fry and such. 
) 
/youtu.be/8NBNs9sMdGI
. But where the middle child? There is came, out form the swords with a nip in its tail! 
Everyone was okay and they got a bit bigger indeed. Nobody was chasing anyone and the medium sized ones tail is growing back almost complete. 
. There is another slightly dark one that is not as skinny, but pretty skinny and swims a bit around. Oy it sucks seeing it so tiny stick thin and theres bit ol' plump ones and food is going right by it and it doesn't eat 
. Woe is me 
