Platys

[Tropic Thunder]

Hi all,

just getting into fish keeping for the first time, set up my 20 gallon tank, cycled it, tested the water and bought some fish. bought 3 Platys on Thursday last week, 2 females and 1 male, i was told this was the way to go as the male shouldn't hassle the others to much as there was 2 of them??? they seemed to settle in nicely.

When i came in on Saturday morning i noticed that they weren't the only fish in the tank as it seemed that 1 of the fish had given birth and there was fry everywhere i had been studying the fish religiously since the day of purchase and there seemed to be no sign of prgnancy. i have bought a breeding trap and have caught the majority of the fry and have been feeding them on crushed up flake in the trap, there are still a few fry left in the tank but i am going to leave these i think and see how they fair

Am i doing the right thing with the feeding and putting them in the breeding trap???

I'm looking to get some more fish this thursday providing water test results allow it, are there any species i should avoid???

Any help greatly appreciated

wasn't expecting this to happen so soon, now i'm wandering if the other female is pregnant!!

Thanks,

Nath

 

[crazychris]

Hi, welcome to the wonderful world of prolific livebearing fish! A pregnant female usually has a distended belly, especially if you look at her from above, and a dark "gravid" spot around her abdomen. You can sometimes see the eyes of the babies! Yes you're right to put them in a breeding trap or the others, including their mother, will eat them when they come across them. It is possible that if you leave some in the tank they may survive, if you've plenty of plant cover that they can hide in until they're too big to be eaten. Females have a brood every month, even after no contact with a male, as she can store sperm for several months too! So, expect another drop in 4 weeks about. TBH I feed them Liquifry as crushed flake may be still too big for them right now.

As to which other fish to avoid, more livebearers if you don't want more babies LOL.!!

 

[Bobtastic]

Agree with the above.

We had two fry (that survived) they hid in the plants and behind some bog wood and by the time we caught them to put them in the baby prison they were actually too big to be eaten anyways... So just let them go. We are adding in some fry food atm, just to make sure that they have something in the water to eat.

Strangley enough we have had the the tank about 2months and only had 2 fry that we know off (from 2females).