Platy Over-Population

[Mainer]

I bought five platys last November, three females and two males. My favorite is an absolutely beautiful blue female now quite large. I have them in a 35-gallon tank with seven Cory catfish. I do partial water changes every 10 or so days, using water from a pond near our house. The water tests out well for aquarium fish, and mine like it. I have about a hundred now, some of them as large as any aquarium platys you'll see in a pet store. I netted some and put them in a 10-gallon tank, which is now over-crowded. I'm sure other people have had this problem— kind of an ethical problem really. What to do with them? Two pet stores that sell tropical fish will take some, if I contact them first. I haven't done that yet. I hesitate because, while my platys will probably do well in the pet store, we all know that most of the people who walk out of a pet store with fish don't know what they're doing. Their fish live for a while under concentration camp conditions, then it's curtains for them. Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing the thoughts of anyone else with a run-away fish population. What's the right thing to do?

Mainer

 

[Staxx]

im worried about this aswell. i have 5 platys only 1 is male. i have 5 mollies 2 are males. they "do it" all day everyday. one of my platys gave birth but luckily(as cruel as it sounds) most of the fry got eaten other than 2 which are still in the community tank. now one of my mollies is ready to drop and i dont know what to do.

 

[creeker]

I made the mistake of letting the plants grow out of control in my platy/community tank. A whole batch of fry survived by hiding in the plants. I'm looking for someone locally that wants platies and Elodea for free.

 

[Steffyxx]

Advertise them in the livestock section on the forum or on ebay or similar ? I recently rehomed 40 platy fry through this forum i considered lfs taking them but would rather know that the people that had them had good advice from here

 

[FishBlast]

My first female swordtail stopped getting pregnant for whatever reason and the male has lost interest in her. But now my newest female seems kind of squared off. Expecting lyretail swordie babies, possibly this or next week.

 

[creeker]

My first female swordtail stopped getting pregnant for whatever reason and the male has lost interest in her. But now my newest female seems kind of squared off. Expecting lyretail swordie babies, possibly this or next week.

I'm sure T-zuppy is looking foward to that! By the way, I think that's the best name I ever heard for a fish.

 

[FishBlast]

My first female swordtail stopped getting pregnant for whatever reason and the male has lost interest in her. But now my newest female seems kind of squared off. Expecting lyretail swordie babies, possibly this or next week.

I'm sure T-zuppy is looking foward to that! By the way, I think that's the best name I ever heard for a fish.

He's going to destroy my plants again... I'll probably be picking the moss off the top of my filter or my fry cage soon...

Tzuppy in Romanian means Hoppy (or Jumpy). Got his name from his habit of jumping at strangers with such speed that he splashes water all over the place. He's like a torpedo.

 

[Ny82]

I never get lots of fry!!! I have had guppies since january. I had one male and 2 females. My 2 females gave birth within a few days of each other and I had 21 fry. Then the tank got ich and I was left with 11, then 8. 6 were sold to a local woman and I kept 2. Then 7 weeks ago I witnessed the same female as before have her fry, she died but I had 12 or 13 fry. I am left with 6. A week ago my cobra female had her fry-I found 7. Today one of the females jumped into the trap (see my thread "guppies can jump?") and ones missing so again left with 6! The same woman who bought my fry before is coming to get the 7 week old ones when they are older. Suppose it keeps me from being overstocked. I am waiting for my female endler to have fry. She is looking quite big!

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Mainer.
Anyone who breeds fish, livebearer or egg layer, must deal with the resulting fry. It is even worse for egg layers where a single breeding can produce hundreds of fry. My daughter found that out when she "accidentally" bred her cichlids and hit up dad for some microworms to help the fry survive. I should have pleaded ignorance since she ended up trying to sell her fish to every shop in town in batches of 50 at a time and still had more left over that nobody would take. Actually I find it easier to deal with the excess population numbers in livebearers. Because the population explosion happens over a bit longer time span, the fish already in a tank can affect the next generation. I have found that as my fish start to become over crowded, the surviving fry count drops dramatically. Please note that I do nothing but provide some cover to help fry survive. I do not use traps and move out all surplus fry but leave them in place and let them survive as they can. I remove all adult guppies from this tank every few months and sell them at auction. The fry are left behind to become the next group that I sell. The tank is perpetually crowded but the new fish always do just fine.

 

[FishBlast]

My red swordtail gave birth once again to around 10 fry. Most got eaten because they were too stupid to stick to the java moss or willow moss or at least the java fern.
Currently, 2 very tiny (and somewhat ugly looking) fry are hiding, one behind a rock and one under my fern's roots. My hoplo made a huge bubble under the fry cage and brought the ceratopteris there so I removed those again as the plants would rot there due to no light.
I'm not going to put those fry in the fry cage, I'd rather reserve spots for my lyretail's fry. If the new fry survive in the main tank, good for them.