New Mama

[Azaeil]

I don't have any photos atm to keep her stress levels minimum while she's birthing, but her fry will be photographed when they're big enough for my cruddy camera to nab them.

She was a replacement fish I got yesterday when my male platy died the day I got him, and seeing how squared she was relatively, I put her in a spare gallon tank I had and stuck her in my closet and closed the door for minimal lighting. Sure enough that paid off...

I had just come home from work on lunch break and went to check on her, and as soon as I carefully turned on the light I saw a little speck moving around, and then two, three, and at least eight fry swimming around and clustering under the loose silk leaves I have in there for them to shelter under, all active and healthy, as for their color type, they show base colors for a marigold, but they're only a few hours old to tell for sure who the father was.

What I'll do with the young? Well, half is for me to know exclusively with my plans for them, but a few will be cultured to a size to be sold to my lfs.

 

[hughessomefish]

Sweet, I always enjoy sucsessful drops from my livebearers! congrats on the eight fry I hope they all make it threw the crutial stage in there life (newborn).Can't wait to see pics!!

 

[OldMan47]

New fry are always fun to enjoy Azaeil. Congratulations.

 

[Azaeil]

Hehe yeah, I think there's more than eight and now that I'm home 4 hours later, I think she's close to done, how long does a birthing take?

 

[Azaeil]

Just did a body count as I moved the babies from the birthing tank into a growing tank, and the grand total number of babies is at a hefty 26 for a first time mother :3

I'm going to start keeping logs and photos of the babies as they grow, because I know more are going to come with two male mollies in the tank, and I'm estimating they're close to a day old now X3

 

[OldMan47]

Not at all a bad number for a first drop, especially considering you have probably missed a few. They are quite small after all.

 

[Azaeil]

Probably, though I pulled mamma out first, then removed the plants and gently netted them into another container so I could have the birthing tank available for the next mamma who's on her way.

It's not been quite a week yet and I still have all 26 babies, yay! My mothering skills have not failed me as they have in the past with other critters! I've been feeding them finely crushed fish flakes I used with my bettas at first before switching to frozen foods, and I'm going to try a brine shrimp or two with them since they were fed about 4 hours ago, they're very good at cleaning up the entire tank even of the flakes that dropped to the bottom where I wouldn't be able to efficiently scoop them out. I keep them in my bathroom, which is the warmest place downstairs in the den I live in, at around 75 degrees, my room's at 68 degrees, and I close both bathroom and bedroom doors at night! I plan on snapping a week old b-day photo of them, they're a pretty little golden color with a faint black spot on the top base of their tail fins. I estimate their current size at almost .7 cm vs the .5 they were at their first day (one was just still enough for me to put a ruler under it beside the tank).

and.. my eel just swatted me with his tail when I prodded him to make sure he was still alive... two of my betta boys in his tank just died and a third one's not far off, and it's puzzling me because I keep the water fresh the entire time and they were thriving until two days ago...

 

[OldMan47]

If you have 3 male betta splendens in the same tank, or did have, you were making a serious mistake. As much as I like my bettas, the males cannot be kept with any other betta. I have recently started to keep some of the less common bettas, not the betta splendens like you will find at a fish shop, and the rules for them are all different, but even those I keep in small numbers in their own tanks.

The 26 fry is a nice count and a week is good enough to expect that all of them will be able to survive now to become adults. The first few days seems to be the only time that I lose any livebearer fry. I cannot say the same thing for all of my fish, but it is true for my livebearers.

 

[Azaeil]

That's the thing, the tank was divided so they couldn't get at each other, and there have been no issues of them jumping the barrier at each other, they'd flare occasionally, but otherwise don't pay attention being a hard-to-see-through divider. Only the bettas were affected, the eel and the khulis are doing just fine, and I know it's not the best idea to have a peacock in the tank, but he's turned out to be one of the least aggressive fish in my community, doesn't even pester the males or the smaller khulis and shares his den with them.

Hmm, well I'm asking around for anyone interested in taking a baby or two before I commit them to my backup plan. I popped a brine shrimp in there last night and one baby alone tackled the entire thing and went writhing all around the tank with it before coming away with the tail held proudly in its mouth.

 

[Azaeil]

Update on the babies, I think they're officially a week old because I got the momma at around 4:30pm Black Friday, and isolated her at 5pm, and the birthing took place somewhere between then and 11AM the following day.

So here's the photo! -

- I know they're in a bit of a small tank that I isolated them into but after asking at the two petstores I go to, they won't be in there much longer, and will go to an ulterior goal - feeding my bichir, since the momma will most likely keep popping out babies, and that I now have a female guppy, she'll provide another source unless she and my silver-spotted male produce some nice offspring to sell off.

I've cleaned out the divided tank the males were in thoroughly, and removed the dividers because there's just one left and I'm hoping he recovers, he's huddling by the heater beside my eel where they fled to during the vaccuming of the gravel.

 

[hughessomefish]

Update on the babies, I think they're officially a week old because I got the momma at around 4:30pm Black Friday, and isolated her at 5pm, and the birthing took place somewhere between then and 11AM the following day.

So here's the photo! -

- I know they're in a bit of a small tank that I isolated them into but after asking at the two petstores I go to, they won't be in there much longer, and will go to an ulterior goal - feeding my bichir, since the momma will most likely keep popping out babies, and that I now have a female guppy, she'll provide another source unless she and my silver-spotted male produce some nice offspring to sell off.

I've cleaned out the divided tank the males were in thoroughly, and removed the dividers because there's just one left and I'm hoping he recovers, he's huddling by the heater beside my eel where they fled to during the vaccuming of the gravel.

Very nice picture of the little one I have some on the way, If all goes well I will post some, once again congrats!

 

[Azaeil]

Sweet, what kind of molly/platy? I can't figure out who the father was because these were petstore spawned, but I'm guessing either marigold or sunburst..

 

[hughessomefish]

Yea those guesses sound about right.I have sunwag platys I think thats what they are called.

 

[Azaeil]

Oooh, I've seen those, pretty little fish :3

 

[OldMan47]

I don't think they are mollies. These are known to be mollies at 18 days old.

You will note they have a longer relative body length compared to their overall length. Your fish are quite a bit thinner in appearance, which would fit well with a swordtail or a platy that has a lot of swordtail ancestry.