Platy Fry Care Help

[Fishda45]

so i was expecting for my female platy to give birth at the end of the week. but when i woke up today i saw that she became thin.

i found 5 platy fry swimming around my tank. so i put them in a small jar so my adult platies won eat them. also i put air pump in the jar. (they probably ate the majority of my fry, knowing that theres only 5 left)

will they be fine in a small jar? what should i feed them? how often and how much water change should i do?

 

[fluttermoth]

They can't stay in the jar!

If you don't have a proper breeding trap, you can make one by punching lots and lots of holes in a plastic container, like an old margarine or ice cream tub.

Then put the fry in there, with a bit of live plant, if you have some, and float it in the main tank

Feed them on very finely crushed up flake, or whatever the adults eat: they don't need special food.

Try and clean the tub out ever day, as it's almost inevitable that you overfeed them (I always do ).

 

[ninjacheesefish]

How big is this "small jar" you speak of?

Fry require regular feeding, around 3 - 4 times a day, in small regular amounts. What I do for fry food it to crush up what the adults get. So if you feed them flake or crisps then put some in a ziplock bag and set a rolling pin on it to crush it into a fine powder.

If you can put some live plant in there as it helps to circulate water and also provides a natural food source for the fry.

They also like really clean water, so if you don't have a filter in there you want to be doing lots of water changes, it all depends on the size of the jar.

 

[allan078]

First of all, you need a breeding trap ASAP, whether that be a DIY one or one from your LFS (they're about £6).

As has already been said, platy fry will happily eat normal fish food, just very finely crushed (almost powdered). They can stay in the breeding trap for a couple of weeks, but if you have the room and can afford it, in that 2 weeks i'd recommend setting up a small 10-20L tank with a heater and an air powered filter (so that it can't suck up the fry) and getting it cycled so that you can move your fry in there. They're grow much quicker and happier with as much space as you can give them.


edit: You could leave them in a breeding trap until they're too big to fit in any of your other fish mouth, but be aware they can easily be sucked into a filter. I would suggest putting your filter in a pair of tights to avoid this.

 

[panda_cory]

The fry will just eat crushed flake fine. I think its about 3 weeks before they can go back in the tank but it depends on what is in the tank if it an fit in any fishes mouth it will be eaten.(for example: I have heard of silver dollars sucking up kuhli loaches like spaghetti.) (hope crossfire doesnt read this!)

 

[LucyB]

Here! Watch this video and make a fry trap ASAP, if the fry don't have a heater they will die, very quickly!

I made a big one of these for my platy fry which were born today - It was very easy

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQzJfh-gf2M&feature=g-hist