Platy having trouble giving birth?

[norbie]

I have a female Tuxedo Platy, who is looking very pregnant!

Today she's been acting weird, sitting on top of the filter, looking like she's trying to give birth, or getting ready to.

I've just spotted what looks like a red baby platy in my tank, but it's the same size of my two/three week old baby guppies

Could it be that she is giving birth to big babies? Is this normal, or is she late maybe?

Is there anything I can do for her?

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Platties are bigger then guppies, although I've not had guppy fry since I don't have guppies. I should try to make sure she's as stress free as she can be. Like most of us when giving birth, nature has a habit of doing things in it's own time.
Fingers crossed she'll be ok tho.
Hugs,
P.

 

[norbie]

Yeah, she's sat on top of the filter, like she has been most of the day.

The male is sitting right next to her though, which is so loyal, and so sweet of him

He swims around the filter now and then just to 'keep guard', he's actually one of the sweetest fish I've seen, for him to do that for her (He's probably not even the father, she was probably preganant when I bought her).

Just a bit worried, that giving birth next to the filter isn't the best idea :\

But the other one seems ok!

 

[Annastasia]

Well...while the father may be sitting there, looking like he's being loyal... he's actually probably waiting by her so he can eat fry, as a lot of male Livebearers do this, as cruel as it may sound.

Platy babies ARE bigger then Guppy babies, so she probably had that fry you saw pretty recently. They can take up to a week to have all their babies, so perhaps s/he was a little earlier then his/her siblings.

Congrats on the babies though!

 

[norbie]

oh dear

well she's moved away from the filter now, and is just swimming around again. She's MEGA big though!

still only had one baby, and i'm pretty sure i've seen it about a week ago as well so i'm a bit confused about that! maybe a really premature baby? or maybe she's really late with the others. the one baby isn't bothered by the other fish (theyre not at all agressive) but hides a lot, and i hadn't seen it for a week until today!

 

[Angry_Platy]

Platy babies ARE bigger then Guppy babies

I actually disagree with this statement. I have had platy and guppy fry born at the same time and guppy fry are by far the largest. They look like little fish whereas platy fry look like rice graisn with eyes. Perhaps all the platy fry I ever had were born premmie or something but its just my experience.

As for the pregnant platy, she may have realised that its not going to happen yet so is getting on with her life until it does. As long as she is acting normal and eating I wouldn't be too concerned.

 

[Annastasia]

Really? All mine have been born much bigger. Mine tend to be about this big when born [---] Whereas the Guppies were like [--]. Or maybe it's just my Platies looked fatter, so it made me think they are bigger...

By the way, Hi Chook. Haven't seen you in a while.

 

[AngelMax]

Annastasia is so right....when our two females were pregnant the males would follow day and night...they are after a nice meaty feast....the fry
The Platys will only give birth when they feel safe and there is no immediate threat. They can hold onto unborn fry for a number of weeks, so it is possible that she has had the one and now decided not to give birth to any more until she is ready and safe.
We bought a fry net for our mum to be....then as soon as she gave birth we removed her; coz even she may get peckish!!!!!
Mind you we ended up with 12 of the little things..... Got Angels which has now kept the numbers down.

 

[norbie]

Now I have two babies! (Yes it really has taken this long!!!!!)

I have one that's quite big, and the other one is quite small, the mum is still big though - don't know how on earth she can only give birth to two of them, and with a 2 month delay in between.