Making Sure Im Ready To Go...

[poopsydrew]

Hey all,
By no means new here, but have never breed fish before so i decided on some platies. Seems to be a simple fish to breed and raise from the research I have done so will you guys double check and make sure I thought of everything? I want to do this right...

Just purchased my platys, different varietes as I am not looking for a certain color. Looked at the anal fins and made sure i got 5 females and 2 males. The tank is 10 gallons (US) cycled and filtered with 2 internal sponge filters. No substrate, although have heard marbles might work well. Heated at 76 degrees. Plenty of fake floating plants and a large clump of java moss in one corner for the fry to hide.

I am going to conditon the fish even though I am sure one of the females is very pregnant as she looks very square. I have decided I am not going to seperate the pregnant females in a breeder net, because I dont want to cause extra stress. I have an extra 10 gallon growout tank for the newborn fry to go in and a 20 gallon to grow them out. I am a little concerned about the fry being eaten before I get to them but from what i have read most will find cover until I move them out?

My next concern is feeding the fry, I know crushed flake would work, but i would like to use bbs or microworms but my lfs does not carry either. Will they be okay on a steady diet of flakes until they are big enough to eat bloodworms? Lastly, if you are still reading, I have talked to my lfs and they will pay me or give me store credit for the platys when they reach a sellable age. Have i forgotten anything? Thank you for taking the time to read my post, sorry it ran so long.

Drew

Just thinking...Could platy fry take frozen bloodworms?

 

[modaz]

set up sounds perfect,

since youve got a squared female already you could put her directly into the 20G to have her fry on her own, that would give you a great start.
Platy fry cant handle bloodworm, fresh or frozen and wont be able to until atleast 0.5" and then it needs to be chopped up, not worth the hassle, too much blood worm is also not a great idea for the fry. if youve got the time BBS are good but I find them a pain in the butt to harvest, microworms are the only things that Ive found work like heaven, they are easy to grow, harvest and take up little space. have a look on ebay, sellers usually provide enough to give you a good amount of culture going and they are usually very cheap.

I personally feed my fry 3 times a day with (2 microworm 1 cruched flake)a 10% water change every day and they grow like crazy.

As long as you make sure your platy are well fed they should leave the fry alone and you can never have enough good hiding places.

Platy take ages to grow to a sellable size for LFS's so it might be an idea for you to sell some of them on ebay as fry, making sure people are aware that they need to be seperated until large enough, keeping the prices low and postage not at a stupid amount will give you a continuos sales status

 

[poopsydrew]

Modaz,
Thank you very much for taking the time to read and respond to my post. Good idea with moving the squared female to the 20, I think ill just do that. Thanks for the suggestions on live food, I i will try microworms or bbs on the internet. My concern is if I have fry before I get the cultures, will they live on flake only until I get the cultures? Also, thanks for the idea of posting the fry on ebay since they grow so slowly, I wasnt aware of that. Thanks again and if you live close to me you are welcome to an endless supply of free platies!

Drew

 

[haleystropicalfish]

Cool. Don't know why I said that, but cool. I actually got something out of this myself

 

[modaz]

Modaz,
Thank you very much for taking the time to read and respond to my post. Good idea with moving the squared female to the 20, I think ill just do that. Thanks for the suggestions on live food, I i will try microworms or bbs on the internet. My concern is if I have fry before I get the cultures, will they live on flake only until I get the cultures? Also, thanks for the idea of posting the fry on ebay since they grow so slowly, I wasnt aware of that. Thanks again and if you live close to me you are welcome to an endless supply of free platies!

Drew

Your welcome, the fry will be ok on flake until live food is available.
As for endless supply of platy, Im a breeder of platy but im always open to offers of swaps to keep my breeders unrelated and improve genetics.

 

[poopsydrew]

Modaz,
Thank you very much for taking the time to read and respond to my post. Good idea with moving the squared female to the 20, I think ill just do that. Thanks for the suggestions on live food, I i will try microworms or bbs on the internet. My concern is if I have fry before I get the cultures, will they live on flake only until I get the cultures? Also, thanks for the idea of posting the fry on ebay since they grow so slowly, I wasnt aware of that. Thanks again and if you live close to me you are welcome to an endless supply of free platies!

Drew

Your welcome, the fry will be ok on flake until live food is available.
As for endless supply of platy, Im a breeder of platy but im always open to offers of swaps to keep my breeders unrelated and improve genetics.

Good to know another platy breeder on here, I am always up for swapping. I am sure I will be asking for your help in the near future as this is my first go. Once again thanks for your help. Any last minute tips from the expert?

Drew

Oh and haley, glad you got something out of my long post

 

[modaz]

please dont call me an expert, im still learning everyday and make mistakes everyday just happens that platy breeding is one of the easy ones, suppose im cheating really coz other wise i'd be breeding stingrays

Biggest tip is HAVE FUN its worth every moment!!!!!