Platy Not Getting Pregnant

[noemy]

Hi everyone.
I have 5 platys, I bought first 3 of then, two were pregnant females (one yellow one tricolored) and one I bought as a male (bright red), but soon found out it had the anal fin of a female. Then I bought another male and female (this time the same color, blue wagtail) because someone said they would only reproduce if the same color. Well it has been over a month now and neither the blue nor the red one is pregnant, and also I don't see the male actually chasing then around, on the contrary they usually chase the male around.

The water condition is fine (I test frequently: pH - close to neutral 7,2 ; nitrite and ammonia - all zero, temp 27˚C), the tank is planted and they are fed daily
They don't seem to fight only chase each other sometimes, or swim side by side. Do I have sterile platys? In this case which one is it? How do I sort them out?

 

[fish48]

The colour of them don’t make a any difference.
Its very unlikely that your platys are sterile feed plenty of food give them some live food or give them some frozen blood worm its very good for getting fish in good condition. platys will eat there fry if not givin Enough food.

 

[ewooten78]

I bought most of my platys and they were already pregnant. But I bought a male and female blue mickey mouse platy and she is definitely pregnant now. Give it time i have had them 6 weeks and i just noticed she is getting bigger. I feed mine once a day and they are mixed in a tank with swordtails and guppies. So not sure who she breeded with.

 

[noemy]

Thanks, I'll buy some brime shrimp. It's easier for me, I haven't found frozen blood worms around, only the dried ones. I hope I get the photos right!

Still trying to put some photos
Does anybody know how to take pictures from photobucket and post here?

 

[noemy]

lol finally some photos

the two ladies not pregnant yet this is from today

this is from when she arrived

Sorry about the lousy photos but these platys are faster then me, and still I had to put my hand in the water to take the pictures (that's why they're all together)

Thanks a lot

 

[OldMan47]

Just a bit of advice here. You have the tank very warm for platies. I run platies at around 24C or a bit less. The pH is a bit low for typical livebearers but really should not be adjusted. Do you have any idea how hard your water is?

 

[noemy]

Just a bit of advice here. You have the tank very warm for platies. I run platies at around 24C or a bit less. The pH is a bit low for typical livebearers but really should not be adjusted. Do you have any idea how hard your water is?

The hardness is around 3KH. I have recently put the heater in the tank, because now we are in Fall and temperatures drop during the night, but on summer it was naturally around 26-27 (that's why I chose this temperature).
I can low the temperature until next summer, but I can't keep it on 24 degrees on summer (I live in Brazil) In fact I might put it down right now to save some energy Thanks a lot. The pH is "low" or around neutral because of the CO2 injection (I have plants) the natural pH of tap water here is 7,6, I adjusted the CO2 bomb so the pH wouldn't drop too much.

Thanks a lot

 

[OldMan47]

I would definitely say that your hardness, which reflects mineral content, is very low. It would be good water for corydoras, angels or even rams but is not good livebearer water. If you have no other fish in the tank, you might want to explore using calcium carbonate, in the form of crushed shells or crushed coral, to raise the water hardness and pH of your water. The way it is used is to put it in the filter flow path and let it gradually dissolve into the tank water. It would be expected to raise your KH and your pH. I have a link to a thread on the subject in my signature area that I have marked as pH Problems.

 

[noemy]

I would definitely say that your hardness, which reflects mineral content, is very low. It would be good water for corydoras, angels or even rams but is not good livebearer water. If you have no other fish in the tank, you might want to explore using calcium carbonate, in the form of crushed shells or crushed coral, to raise the water hardness and pH of your water. The way it is used is to put it in the filter flow path and let it gradually dissolve into the tank water. It would be expected to raise your KH and your pH. I have a link to a thread on the subject in my signature area that I have marked as pH Problems.

Thank you very much Oldman, I will see to it. I finally think my red platy is pregnant since she has been gradually getting fatter and more squared since I first posted here. The problem I'm facing now is when to know they are going to drop so I could prevent fry predation. Well, I've read every single post on this in this forum and for no use. My platys never get as squared as your moly (from your post) and the white spot also so used is very common, even in the male, before they poop you can see it. So yesterday I found 2 fry in my thank, one yellow (probably form the yellow female) one white (probably from the tricolored female) one I caught, and put in the trap, just to discover it can pass through it, and the white one I couldn't catch. So I continued looking for then, after a few minutes with no success, I took all my fish from the tank and then I took all the plants, and found nothing, so they were probably eaten. I can't tell you how sorry I am since those two where the first fry I ever saw, and unlike those more experienced, it is significant to me and makes me very disappointed to know they probably had around 30 fry each and I wasn't able to save one.


Here is a photo so you can see the red one pregnant, she have been recently fed so she is a little more round in the front.

 

[OldMan47]

The round shape in front is more often the result of feeding well than carrying fry. That does not mean that your fry are not to be expected but merely that the most of her shape is due to good eating. As far as trying to determine when a fish is getting close to a drop, I have a thread that I started that tries to help you figure that out for yourself. In my signature area, it is called my molly's progress. It follows a molly from one drop to the next along with my, perhaps meaningless, observations along the way. At least in concept, it should leave you with the ability to look at your own fish and guess how they are coming along.

 

[noemy]

Just to let you guys updated, this very same fish (Ruby as I call her) dropped fry about 4-5 hours ago, I saw one drop and put her into the breeding trap. Now I have 17 fry safely on my trap.
So yes she was pregnant! I'll post some pictures latter!

 

[biokid101]

yay congrats!!

 

[OldMan47]

That is good news Noemy. I always love it when I have new fry in a tank, and with about 20 livebearer tanks running, I have some new ones every few days.

 

[Harlequins]

Congrats on your fry

She is a gorgeous looking colour