Platy Fry Question

[discofish]

HI, This is my first post- hope you all can help. I have a 12 gallon freshwater nano (not planted) with 4 golden barbs and three platys. I purchased one of the platys preg from LFS along with one of those small float in "safe" tanks. The mom had 13 fry and then was returned to the regular population. The 13 fry became 11 over night (2 vanished). We held at 11 for a week and then 3 went fins up and 2 more vanished. Amonia Nirtate and Nitrites were all zero. I do weekly water changes of about 10 to 15%. Over the next 3 days 2 more died and one was just gone and now we have only one baby left. This is not the fry I would have identified as the biggest or smartest (clearly I'm no expert) so I'm perplexed. Is it normal to lose so many? Obviously don't know anthing about the dad- could that make a difference? Of the 3 grown platys one is male and the others are female so we will have an occasion to try this breeding thing again but I would like it to go better. I know my tank is small so I was only planning on adding 2 or 3 more platys (from breeding) and any other survivors were going to my kids school. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[chibi]

Platies will eat their young. It happens with most livebearers. Some will die in the process of growing as well. It might not have anything to do with the tank's balance, but simply poor breeding or defects or mutations. My guppy had 55 babies, and all but two died, and the water was fine.

 

[LiveLifeGoJump]

If it's her first time then the fry may be weak ones. She may have given bith early with the stress of being transfered from lfs to you then into breeder trap. Even a day or 2 early can reduce a frys chance of survival (1 day early in a 4 week cycle is like 9 days early for a baby, 2 days =18 days)

Survival & birth rates increase each time.

My plattys 4th or 5th time I got 66 & only lost one.

She'll give birth every 4-5 weeks so be ready