New To Forum - Fish Are Breeding Like They Are Going Out Of Fashion

[UKTsb]

Hi, I'm new to the forum. I'm SamB's mum.  I used to keep fish when we lived in England, we had a 50 gallon tank, very successful.  Have not had tropical fish since then, so....about 15 years.  I was given a 10 gallon tank in April along with a multitude of fish - for my birthday.  Had a death of a fish (platy) but the others seem OK.  It's overstocked since my husband and daughter were sure my tank was 20gallons and not 10 gallons.  It's 10 gallons.  Now I have a bigger problem...my platys won't stop breeding.  I currently have 15 baby platys.  What. A. Nightmare.
 
Not sure how to deal with this really.
 
 

 

[TallTree01]

Wow! We have an entire family of fish keepers now!
The only thing you can do about the platies is either get rid of all the females, get rid of all the males, get rid of them all, get a fish that can eat the babies or ( this is the best method IMO ) get another tank!
Welcome to the forums.

 

[Mamashack]

Hi and

 to TFF!
Unfortunately platies do breed prolifically about every 4-5 weeks. If you don't want to keep all of them leave them in the community tank and some will be taken as food when they are new-born. I have a similar problem but have managed to persuade my LFS to take some off my hands as they get to 3-4 months old. Even separating the male from the female won't have any effect for about 6 months as they keep sperm packets and can produce up to 6 batches of fry without the male being present.
Getting a new tank every month or so isn't that practical really unless you have loads of dosh and space!

 

[UKTsb]

TallTree01 - thanks for the welcome!  Love the little emoticon with the sign, very funny   and yup, SamB managed to convince my daughter and I both last night to join the fish forum! SamB also recommended getting a fish that would eat my baby fish but...that's not happening!  I am hoping to sell my fish though, I guess even the Platys as they are pregnant.  AGAIN.
 
Mamashack - thanks for that welcome and again, I love that little emoticon!  I agree about selling the fish.  I think the fry are now about 4 or 5 weeks old.  So I will wait another week or two, and also sell my adult platys.
 
Eventually I hope to get a larger tank but for now I like my little 10-gallon.  It's just horribly overstocked!!!  Hope this will be resolved as soon as my baby fish get big enough - then it's bye-bye to my platys (sob), but will get a new fish to ooh and ahh over.
I have names for them all.  Sadly all my females are apparently males.  And my males are apparently females.  I don't think they care - but they always seem happy to have interaction with me (probably because I feed them!).

 

[UKTsb]

I'm kinda sad to have to sell my platys and babies as it was so exciting to see that I have baby fish!  But....15 baby fish, in a 10 gallon tank that is likely already overstocked....is not good.

 

[the_lock_man]

The chances of selling your fish to a LFS are pretty slim. Mamashack is one of the lucky ones, in that her LFS is taking them from her (she's a pretty persuasive lady, so they tell me....), but I don't believe they are paying her anything.
 
LFS buys platies for less than a $1 from trusted sources, why would they risk their tanks' health buying stock from an unknown home breeder?
 
The best you can realistically hope for is some store credit, but sadly not many of them do even that.

 

[Shadders]

Have to say Lock man is right, out of all my LFS only two will take my young fish and they are small independent shops, large chains wont touch them, and I don't get anything for them not even store credit, just knowing they will get re-homed is enough for me, I mainly get rid of mine via a Facebook pet page where I advertise them a free of charge.

 

[daizeUK]

Maidenhead Aquatics is good at taking livebearer fry but that doesn't help you in the US
 
My long-term plan is to separate the males into a new tank and wait until the females have run out of sperm stores then perhaps I might selectively breed when the current fry frenzy has calmed down!

 

[Mamashack]

 
Mamashack is one of the lucky ones, in that her LFS is taking them from her (she's a pretty persuasive lady, so they tell me....), but I don't believe they are paying her anything.

You are right TLM they didn't pay me but it wasn't about the money - needed to make some space and get rid of some of the aggressive older ones who'd been having a pop at mum. The alternative would have been culling them which I didn't really fancy doing.
Anyway, what do you mean I can be persuasive? Who's been gabbing? lol

 

[the_lock_man]

 
Anyway, what do you mean I can be persuasive? Who's been gabbing? lol