Pregnant Platy.. Sorry I Am A Fish Moron

[heatheratl11]

After looking at many photos online, I have deduced that my platy is not just feeling bloated, but indeed is with fry!

She looks like she is about to explode.. her scales look like they are protruding and she is otherwise rather fluffy!

However...

I don't see a gravid spot?? But I do see little round spots in her belly..

Can anyone give me an idea when I should move this fish to the breeding cup? It is plastic and floats and is also ventillated. Will this be sufficient?

My tank is 55 gallons and has about 20 small fish in it. I have plenty of live plants including a couple of those plastic fry laying grass plants.

Should I even move her at all?

I don't want to move her prematurely and I don't want to move her at all if it is not necessary.

http/www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sf...276141d224b0f78

Thanks in advance for any reply/advice.

Kindly,
Heather

 

[WILDER]

Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite,nitrate, and ph.

If the scales are sticking out thats the last stage of dropsy organ failure.
When you say fluffy, do you mean the fish is covered in what looks like cotton wool on a fish.

 

[heatheratl11]

Its not dropsy. I've had a koi pond and I'm familiar with that. Shes pregnant.

Did you look at the picture?

Its a 55 gallon tank. I have about 20 fish.. all community type.. non aggressive with several platys.

I just don't know how to determine how far along she is... no cottony growth.. no ick. Just pregnant.

 

[LittleMick]

Hi Heather, I'm not sure if this will of any use to you as Im just a beginner with regards to time served.

I have 6 Platys, 3 of which are female, although I can tell if they are preganant, only on eof them gets overll huge, but I can't always see a gravid spot on them. I'll just see a one or more of them might be fat then out the blue one day I'll have a few fry swimming about. When I saw the first fry I went on abit of a panic and got all the breeding traps etc, but I thought it was more hassle than it was worth, plus they were still small enough to escape out the bottom vents under the false floor. I sought the advice of the LFs and they said just to leave it to natural selecetion and you will be more successful. So I did and all my livebeareres succesfully breed. I normally have fresh batches of fry every 3 or 4 weeks, when they are 1cm+ II give them to the local LFs. My last capture of fry was about 20 Platys and 10 Mollies over a 1 month period.



Mick

 

[Inchworm]

Hi heatheratl11

Welcome to the forum!

I'm going to move your thread to the Common Livebearers section. The members who post in there will be happy to advise you too.

 

[CasaDilla]

I agree with LittleMick, my platy is currently pregnant and I think I just stressed her by moving her to and from the breeder trap each time I thought she was going to drop, so I just added a bunch of hiding spots. Your tank should be fine for many of them to survive if it has places where the babies can go but the adults can't.

 

[Harlequins]

Hi Heather

I have pregnant platies and i have never seen their scales protruding?
Like wilder says usually this is usually a sign of dropsy,
The link doesn't work,there's no pic showing.Perhaps you could try again

 

[WILDER]

I forgot to mention in first reply that the link not working.
Can you load another pic up onto the site.

I never know pregnant livebearers scales to stick out no matter how big they get. its a sign of dropsy, parasites under the scales, or scales have slightly raised due to knocking them on something in the tank.
Lumps or growths under the scales.

 

[heatheratl11]

Ok I sholud re-clarify.. Its not dropsy. I am familiar with dropsy. She is pregnant.

I just meant she looks stretched.. I should not have even said anything about her scales. I'm not sure how to add a photo here, every time I try to add one it says it cannot upload photos from dynamic website.

Thanks for your help, but I will just let her have the fry in the tanks; whenever that happens.

Heather

 

[OldMan47]

Pictures cannot really be loaded here. Instead you add them to a place like photobucket, where anyone can see them, and then paste a link here. The place where you posted your picture requires people to join up to see the picture. A link copied from photobucket and pasted into a text thread here comes out looking like this to everyone else.

My molly with 33 day old fry

 

[LittleMick]

Well I think Oldman just cleared up the dropsy confusion with that image, right Heather? You can see how the scales are defined, when I saw my Platys and Mollies like this I thought it was a disease but after looking at the diseases in a fish health book I calmed down abit, lol.

Heather you're trying to say your Platy looks like she has swallowed a fotball right? Lol, mine a look like they have swallowed 10. At the min I have 3 pregnant mollies, and only one of which I can see the gravid spot. 2 of my Platys are preganant, and the one that has swallowed 10 footballs, I can't see her gravid spot either.

In my aquarium I have (not dense) but enough plantage and ornaments for the fry to hide, they tend to linger about the plants, then if a bigger fish comes near they just close to the leaves, then when they hit the 1/2 cm mark they tend to venture out toward the centre in the open, then at the 3/4 -1cmmark they swim about and feed with the rest of the mottley crew, so before you know it you'll have a nursery on your hands. How many males and females do you have? Do you have any other livebearers? Not that that should make any difference.

Juat an addition to my earlier fry count, I forgot to mention, when I cleaned the ornaments in my aquarium the other week a load of Bristlenose Plec babies come scooting out, 9+ so far, so the Natural Selection theory is certainly holding up, lol.

 

[Harlequins]

Hi littlemick

I think you will find that the pic oldman is showing is of his own molly.

Congrats on you plec fry

 

[LittleMick]

Hi littlemick

I think you will find that the pic oldman is showing is of his own molly.

Congrats on you plec fry

Thanks Harlequins.

On the image side, I knew it was OldMan's Molly, sorry, I should have said that. As the OP couldn't show a pic, so no one could see the condition of her fish. And that image shows what my Platys and Mollies look like and what I believe Heather's look like.

Aplogies for the confusion.


Mick

 

[Harlequins]

Hi littlemick

I think you will find that the pic oldman is showing is of his own molly.

Congrats on you plec fry

Thanks Harlequins.

On the image side, I knew it was OldMan's Molly, sorry, I should have said that. As the OP couldn't show a pic, so no one could see the condition of her fish. And that image shows what my Platys and Mollies look like and what I believe Heather's look like.

Aplogies for the confusion.


Mick

Hi Mick

Thats ok, no worries

Heather - hows the Platy? any fry dropped yet?