Low Fry Count

[Gutty]

i've had a sunset female for 1 month and 2 weeks ago she had babies, there were only 8! one was eaten, one was just born dead, and another was born with its yolk still on and and was roughly only like 1/2 the size of the other fry and it died shortly after birth. leaving a remainder of 5, that are doing well and growing quickly which is all good, i was just wondering if theres a certain reason for this small ammount of only 8 fry being born, is it like gt something to do with being a first pregnancy or is this normal, in the past my platy's always at least had 20+ fry

also a week ago my female black molly had 9 fry and they were all born dead and slightly rotted, would that have something to do with the whole aborting pregnancy thing? the molly has always been very healthy.

 

[Gutty]

well seeing as no one has replied i take it that this is normal

 

[kimmers318]

I can't assure you it is "normal" so to speak....and I have only had 2 breeding platy for a total of 5 batches of fry, but my first female only had 12 the first time....and like 30 the next. That was as best we could count as we tried to catch them before losing them to filter intake or other fish! Our latest batch was born yesterday, 3rd batch for this female, and there are probably 30-40. Of the 2 times I have been able to observe the births (which is cool btw) I have seen a couple "pop out" and not swim off that were dead. One of my batches also had 2 that would just never grow....they only made it to maybe 3cm while the others were pushing the 3/4" mark. One of those died on it's own, so the other was fed to my kribensis.

 

[Gutty]

i guess theres nothing wrong with it, the fry are growing well. well thanks and congrats on your fry!!

 

[Morquinn]

Mine only had 8 fry too, it was her first pregnancy. She just gave birth again a couple days ago, but im unsure how many she has had (I know there are more, because there were more eyes in her belly this time) but I cant see them all since its an all natural rock tank, so there are probably a bunch hiding in these rocks. I guess I will find out in a few weeks when they are a little less shy, and too big to fit in the rocks.

 

[Annastasia]

also a week ago my female black molly had 9 fry and they were all born dead and slightly rotted, would that have something to do with the whole aborting pregnancy thing? the molly has always been very healthy.

She aborted? How many males and females do you have? What are your water stats like? Do you keep salt in with them? And is there anything you can think of that might stress her out?

Sorry to hear about the fry, though. Congrats on the others.