Needing More Experienced Help

[noemy]

Hi, I'm keeping Platys since March/10 and have passed through a lot of pregnancies since then, I'm on the 3rd generation in my tank, having donated a lot of young fish to friends. I have a platy named Dawn, it was one of my fist females and now it's huge (at least 6cm long), and is by far the biggest platy I've ever seen. The problem with her is she's heavily pregnant for almost a month now. I've noticed she was completely squared off and huge on October 4th, and have been watching her ever since for signs of delivery. But she has not drop any eggs or fry since then, and she is getting huger day by day. I'm worried she's having problems delivering.
I had a female that dyed a few months ago from problems delivering, she tried to abort some eggs but together with it came out a kind of organ that was keeping the eggs inside, and the other fish started eating it. Well she died in a couple of hours and I don't wanna loose another fish, specially since Dawn's been with me the hole time and was one of the first fish I brought home.

Any one has any help that can offer me?
As I know you'll all ask, the water quality is good, with zero ammonia, zero nitrite, a little basic water (7,4 pH), hardness around 3dH (my test is not very precise) and she has for mates: 4 mature females (counting her) 2 mature males, 2 young platy (don't know yet if male or female) and a couple of cleaning fish (can't remember their name now, but they are small glass cleaners), some shrimp and a completely planted thank. The males are sometimes annoying her

 

[anah2467]

Hi, I'm keeping Platys since March/10 and have passed through a lot of pregnancies since then, I'm on the 3rd generation in my tank, having donated a lot of young fish to friends. I have a platy named Dawn, it was one of my fist females and now it's huge (at least 6cm long), and is by far the biggest platy I've ever seen. The problem with her is she's heavily pregnant for almost a month now. I've noticed she was completely squared off and huge on October 4th, and have been watching her ever since for signs of delivery. But she has not drop any eggs or fry since then, and she is getting huger day by day. I'm worried she's having problems delivering.
I had a female that dyed a few months ago from problems delivering, she tried to abort some eggs but together with it came out a kind of organ that was keeping the eggs inside, and the other fish started eating it. Well she died in a couple of hours and I don't wanna loose another fish, specially since Dawn's been with me the hole time and was one of the first fish I brought home.

Any one has any help that can offer me?
As I know you'll all ask, the water quality is good, with zero ammonia, zero nitrite, a little basic water (7,4 pH), hardness around 3dH (my test is not very precise) and she has for mates: 4 mature females (counting her) 2 mature males, 2 young platy (don't know yet if male or female) and a couple of cleaning fish (can't remember their name now, but they are small glass cleaners), some shrimp and a completely planted thank. The males are sometimes annoying her

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She looks like my platy too...a balloon platy. Is this her first prenancy? I'd segregate the males if it was mine to relieve her stress.

 

[noemy]

Well I actually can't count how many pregnancies she had, but, at least she's got granddaughters. That's I'm certain. The thing is I tried to put her in the other tank, but she got even more stressed (the other tank is smaller) I can put her or the males on a trap, but any attempt to take her in the net is just too stressful. I don't know what's best. What do you think? And yes she's really a balloon platy, so big that she looks like those gold "strange" fish...

Thanks

 

[anah2467]

Well I actually can't count how many pregnancies she had, but, at least she's got granddaughters. That's I'm certain. The thing is I tried to put her in the other tank, but she got even more stressed (the other tank is smaller) I can put her or the males on a trap, but any attempt to take her in the net is just too stressful. I don't know what's best. What do you think? And yes she's really a balloon platy, so big that she looks like those gold "strange" fish...

Thanks

Well, what I did with mine is I placed in a divider so that she'd be on the same parameters, you know..water chemistry,ph, etc. I didn't picked her up with a net but guided her to that section in my tank then closed in the divider. I placed in lots of plants & decoration too so the frys can hide and have more chances of survival. Less stress on the pregnant platy without the male following her all the time. You can try that it worked on my platy. Take note also not to over feed your platy, I had to lessen my feeding too as suggested...sometimes we get carried away with them fishy acting hungry,

 

[OldMan47]

Anah has made a very sensible suggestion. If I want to preserve fry, certainly not every time for me, I place a female into a solitary tank where she can relax and drop fry at her own convenience. I often will pack that tank with lots of small leaved plants like java moss as cover for the fry. I get an average of about 30 surviving fry when my female has around 10 gallons to herself for the drop and she is well fed while the fry have lots of cover. Even a female staying in the tank with her fry does not seem to affect the outcome much if she is well fed and the fry have lots of hiding places.