New To All This Platy Birth Stuff?

[Mylesmom08]

Hey guys, so I just joined and posted a topic in the Introduction, as it is the polite thing to do Anyways, about 2 months ago I recieved my platy fish in the mail, and one girl in perticular was pregnant. I did some research on this site and others and learned how to identify male/female, pregnant signs, ect.. So my question is, now that I know she IS pregnant and I can see the frys eyes, I went out and got her a 5 gallon tank and made an air pump sponge filter with cycled media from my main tank and moved her in it five days ago, but what are the 'labor signs' and are any of these labor signs? She seems to love it, swimming up and down enjoying not being chased by my male. MEN I tell ya lol!

-She has only been eating about 5-10% of what she normal does.
-Her bowels are clear and frequent even though she is watching her diet
-She does have the 'white dot' around her anus which I think is the birthing tube, however like I stated she is having frequent bowels so that could be it instead.
-She rubs her tummy against the sand? (I pre-treat for parasites/fungus/worms with all new arrivals and recently did a 4 week dose of Paraguard for finrot on my first Betta, so she is free of any medical conditions)
-Her spine/top fin has the classic point shape (^) I heard are signs of impending labor
-I have seen the frys eyes for about a week or so now - how long is it after you can see eyes do they typically give birth?
-She swims nose down and backwards a lot and up and down the sides of the tank

My ammonia + nitrIte = 0
I did a 75% water change on the 5 gallon today when nitrAtes were 10 ppm
I have plenty of fake floating grass and vines at the top, and other fake plants at the bottom for the fry to hide in. 

I did as much research as I could before asking this, so if I missed a post that had the answers feel free to share it! Thanks guys!

 

[the_lock_man]

There are two or three typical birthing signs. You have spotted the birthing tube, so that's a good sign. THe second is that she will hang around at the bottom near the back, effectively trying to hide from any potential predators. The third is that her belly squares-off - it develops very square corners, almost a sharp right-angle.
 
The thing about breeding livebearers (and if you've been lurking a while, you'll have probably read this from me already!) is that you need to ensure that you have a reliable outlet for the fry. She'll have 30+ fry every month or so until 6 months after her last contact with a male. You could end up very quickly being overrun with fry. Not many LFS will take home-bred fry, and I personally wouldn't buy from Craigslist or Gumtree or PreLoved, when the shops are so cheap.
 
In the wild, these fish produce so many fry, because they "know" that most will be predated upon, often by their own kind. Mother Nature has a funny way of getting things right, maybe you might decide to let her have her own way.

 

[Mylesmom08]

I am just so excited to see a birth and raise a batch of fry! 

  but I also contemplated about being overrun and I don't plan on raising anymore then this batch, I will let nature take its course with the next batch. Otherwise a guy at my school has cichlids and I worked out a deal with him if I have to many he can use them as.. *gasp* feeders if it gets crazy 

I dont know if she squared off since shes looked kinda square for a while, but I sorta got a picture of her if it helps. 

 

[Mylesmom08]

So my platy is giving birth yay!!! - sort of.. Is it normal for her to have one fry and take hours between births? I covered her tank with a blanket last night because my boyfriend was up with a few friends and I didn't want the light to interfer with her night time ritual sleep patterns, and this morning I woke up to one tiny fry! OMG they are tiny!! lol so I have no idea what time he/she was born, but she still have plenty of eyes left in her stomach? Its been about 4 hours since I noticed the one fry. You think covering up the tank again would make her more comfortable or would it stress her out going from light to dark so suddenly in the middle of the day.. I really want to watch, but her healthy and wellbeing is more important, plus I can watch births on youtube while I wait lol