Platys....letting Nature Take Its Course!

[Lazerus]

Hi all,

I am new the world of livebearers as I have just this morning, bought a set of four Mickey Mouse platys.

I bought one male and three females and they now reside on their own in a 10gal mature tank.

So, I read up on the basics of these fish and I'm happy enough with most of the questions I browsed, its fairly standard stuff with regard to caring for fish...and I've read up on what to do when fry are born, putting the breeding tank/net, how to care for them and feed the fry etc

But something that I an curious about and just can't find information on is what happens if fry are born and you didn't get a chance to gather them up to a safe place or have decided that you just want nature to take its course....and they are still swimming about amongst the adults.

As the adult platys eat their own young, wouldn't the adult fish stand the risk of over feeding?

I'm just curious what people do with regards to feeding their fish during this time? I take it that you don't feed your fish with fish food if there is fry in the tank that they might have fed on?

 

[Harlequins]

When i first starting keeping livebearers,i would religiously save them and did set up a fry tank,this within a few months was over-run with 400 fry ++ ,

So i stopped saving them and let nature take it course and i was amazed how many survived,they're very good at hiding and if you have plenty of plant covering they will thrive.

Fish see fry has free food,after a while the adults will 'get use' to seeing them and will probably ignore them.

I continued feeding them has per usual...

Thats my imput,i'm sure others will give theirs

 

[OldMan47]

Just the opposite of what you have suggested Lazerus. I regularly breed livebearers and take no active methods to save fry. By keeping the adults well fed and giving the fry plenty of cover to hide in, I have a fairly high survival rate for my fry.