Oh My Gosh, She Had Babies!

[Morquinn]

YAY! After what seemed forever she had her babies! My sunset platy has givin birth last night, but I dont think she is done. She is still quite fat and I still think I see a couple inside her. I have only seen 3 swimming around, and WHOA I didnt realize how small they would be. I was at first thinking "survival of the fittest" but now Im so excited and attached I removed all the other fish except the female platy and the female guppy who is also ready to give birth. I think im even going to pick up a breeding net also, since I have to go to the petstore anyways. WOW, its just so exciting... I need to calm down. But really, I have waited for a year and a half to have baby fry and it finally happened! Im SO paranoid they are gonna be killed, its driving me nuts! Thanks for anyone who has helped with questions, and who has told me to be patient, cuz really patients is a virtue WOOHOO!

 

[Tempestuousfury]

You say you've been waiting 1.5 years for fry. Was that livebearer fry? If so, why didn't you just separate the female pregnant livebearers after the first month, thereby saving you roughly 17 months of waiting?

As for separating the non-pregnant fish--I would suggest getting a 10 gallon tank for your fry, instead of the traps, since I never had much luck with them, and the net breeders make it so you can only really see your fry from the top. Also, with a ten gallon tank, you can keep multiple preggies in/ fry in (with hiding places) along with the preggies, and this way you only have to move the female livebearers (1 week before they are due) from the main tank, instead of having to move all of the other fish out.

Forgot to say, congrats.

 

[Morquinn]

Well I put the fry in a 2 gallon, but then decided against it since it wouldnt fit a heater. There are only 5 fry that I have seen, and tremendous amounts of hiding spots for them. I dont believe I have lost a fry yet, unless she had more that I didnt see. I believe this would of been her first birth. As for waiting so long for my original platy female and male to hook up, I wouldnt have the foggiest clue as to why. I have never seen him thrust or even try mating with her, but they are "joined at the fins" and he wont leave her side, its wierd, she has never showed signs of pregnancy since I got her a year and a half ago. I have a spare 10 gallon that isnt being used, but wouldnt I have to cycle that for awhile first? My guppy is ready to explode, I have 5 platy fry and who knows how many zebra danio fry I have (which was a total suprise) The only fish I have in the 10gallon are the zebra danios, the female platy and female guppy, all the others have been moved to the 55gallon.

 

[Annastasia]

Congratulations!


Did you just have one male and one female? That may be why you haven't had fry, stress on the female from the male paying all his attention to her. It's recommended to have 2-3 females per male. Also, is it possible she had small batches and they just got eaten? The fish in that tank wouldn't hesitate to eat fry. 1.5 years is a LONG time to not have fry.

As for the 10 gallon, the easiest way to quickly cycle it is to stick the filter into the main tank so it can pick up bacteria. That should cycle it, or get it pretty darn close. Just keep an eye on the water stats afterwards, and keep up with the water changes.

 

[Morquinn]

Yeah, the original male and female I had together were by themselves for 1.5 years. And she is actually not the one that gave birth. The one I have had for 2 or 3 months is the one that gave birth. Im really hoping for fry out of my original blue female platy, I have seen her mating with my red wagtail male, but nothing is looking too suspicious yet. I wish my camera wasnt broken or I would take a picture of my blue female platy, she is HUGE, and not meaning fat, but very large, at least 2 times if not 3 times bigger than the males I have, I think she is a mutant. She could of had small batches I suppose and all of em got ate, but I guess only she would know that cuz I have never seen any.

 

[Annastasia]

That's kind of strange she hasn't given birth in all that time. It might be that she just has small batches and they get eaten. Does she look healthy and act normal?

 

[Morquinn]

Yeah, she is healthy! She acts normal, and is the queen of the females I would have to say. She has no damage to her, and is quite big, even fat in some ways, but nothing that looks pregnant. She probably has had batches of fry, but when I had first had her for a year or so I didnt have much for any fry to hide in, and I was doing cleaning and all that other stuff normaly, never looking for any fry. I just recently got into wanting fry, so, she's probably had some, I have just never noticed.

 

[GuppyDude]

actually, platys and swords have a tendancy towards haveing many small batches over a period of time rather than all at once like guppies. anna may be right, it is pretty unlikely that she would hold a belly full of babys for all that time.