Thanksgiving Platy Surprise

[korunks]

So I am in the middle of my normal hustle and bustle cleaning for guests who are on their way and I notice my platy female chasing some thing in the tank I wonder what it could be since the only other thing in there was the male and what do I find. Babies!!!!!!! I quickly placed mom and dad fish back into their primary tank and am now the owner of 6-11 baby platys(so cute). Question is. They have been alive foe around 24 hours, when do I start the liquifry, and when to start serving brine shrimp. I am very excited my first fish babies! Any help would be appreciated, They are currently in a 10 gallon with a retrofitted sponge filter. (sponge wrap + power filter(no cartridge) = sponge filter). Thanks for any help.



****************UPDATE*************************
On further counting I believe I have 11 babies, but I also unfortunately noticed that there is a significant amount of debris in the tank, white fluff and the like, I have just completed a 25% water change but unfortunately that did not get most of it, because the babies get in the way(Silly little gravel hugger's ). What Am i to do? I think it's to soon to move the fry. I would appreciate suggestions.

 

[korunks]

Look I am not trying to be rude but I have seen several response to many other threads, some of which started after mine. Did I do something to offend everyone? I read the tutorials but none of them give a timeline of how soon to start feeding after birth, and they also don't mention when to start feeding brine shrimp either. Not trying to be rude but I need help I do not want my baby fish to die.

 

[nmonks]

Greetings, and congratulations on your new little fish!

One reason you might not have received as many answers here as you'd like is that your question is covered in the pinned topics in this forum. Specifically, Your First Baby Fish! [a Sub-faq For Newbies] and The Fry Tank [a Sub-faq For Newbies]. So don't despair! If you've been ignored, it's not because you've said anything bad but because people don't always want to repeat things that have been said many times before. If nothing else, it's boring.

Anyway, to answer your question briefly, feed your baby fish at once. Livebearer fry should receive several small meals every day. I like to leave in lumps of algae from garden ponds for them to nibble on two. In the wild, platies are algae-eaters (mostly) and feed constantly, like sheep or cows. So the more small meals you can give them, the better. Giving too few meals tends to stunt the fry, if they survive at all (one reason lots of people start off with dozens of fry on day 1 but only have three or four a month later is starvation).

You don't really need to use baby brine shrimp unless you want to. Platies couldn't care less either way. Algae, algae, algae, and algae, followed by a splash of algae at bed time is what they want. Anything else is icing on the cake. Liquify will do to start with, but after a couple of weeks wean them on to Spirulina flake or whatever algae-based flake food you are feeding your adult platies with (you *aren't* feeding them regular flake, are you?).

Cheers, Neale

 

[monica]

Feed them crushed flake food, brine shrimp (great for growth!) or bloodworms (for the fastest growth) Or all three. There are alo daphnia etc... I suggest you dont feed live. Because most don't get eaten (they are hard for the fry to chase, and only waste their valuable energy) and after awhile they pullute the water. You can start feeding them food from birth. They are always hungry little monsters!

 

[korunks]

Thank you for the answers, Neale I didn't know you weren't supposed to feed them regular flakes . Are they going to be ill because of it? I tried to find Spirulina flakes tonight after reading your post, but my lfs was closed(evil buggers). Tomorrow I might try to get out and buy some. So far the little guys are doing ok. I give three small meals a day of liquifry(about 4 drops) is this too much or to little? I just do not want to overfeed, but do not want to starve them either. Oi this is more complicated than I originally thought. I am sure after this batch I will be an old hand at this.....I hope. Thanks again



cheers
Shawn

 

[kribensis12]

You can feed baby livebearers( any type of fish basically), the same food you feed the parents, just smaller and in moderation!

 

[nmonks]

Platies don't always get sick if fed regular flake; they just do better when fed algae-based flake. Aquarium stores will have this stuff in stock, and it may be called "Livebearer Flake Food" or similar. Spirulina-flake is simply one particular kind, but there are lots of algae-based formulations on the market. The advantage is that livebearers are less prone to constipation and develop better colours when given the right food.

It's impossible to say how much food to give your fish without knowing how many you have. But as a rule, add only so much as is completely eaten in 2-3 minutes, and certainly there should be nothing left after 5 minutes. Four meals per day is the minimum for young fish, and up to 6 meals is often recommended. After about a month you can scale this back to 2-3 meals per day. The point is that fish have short guts, and can only absorb a small amount of food in one go. So even if they eat a big amount in one meal, most will leave the anus undigested, merely polluting the water. That doesn't matter so much with adult fish since we feed them too much anyway, but baby fish have a high energy requirement since they are growing very fast, and so we need to make more of an effort to replicate the wild conditions where they would be eating constantly. Hence my recommendation to add some algae to the tank for the them to graze on.

Cheers, Neale

 

[korunks]

I don't have any free floating algae though. Do LFS sell floating algae? I have never seen any around here. Is there a good online source for them?

 

[monica]

You will know if you feed too much because the water will be cloudy. Do regular water changes. And you can feed them anywhere between 1-5 times daily, the more times the better.

 

[korunks]

Ok I need a little further help. I started out feeding the babies liquifry, and Although they are not quite a week old I tried to crumple really small some algae flake(thanks Neale for the info). They don't seem to be interested in it, it just floats at the top of the tank. I do not want them to starve but I would rather feed them the flake than the liquifry. Anybody know of a way to encourage them to eat the flake?

 

[monica]

Do not give liquifry, just give crushed flakes, and when they get hungry (which will be in like a day lol) they will go for that and realize it is yummy

 

[korunks]

Just wanted to post an update on my babies. Now that they are bigger we can finally count. We have 21 baby platies!!!!! And they are all doing well. They are now eating algae flake and occasionally brine shrimp for a treat(they love to chase them). Thanks to everyone who posted answer you have helped make this a great experience for me.

 

[LauraFrog]

Just in case any other newbies read this topic...
Fish that are born from eggs have large yolk sacs, which are often sufficient food for several days as some are incapable of even swimming when they are hatched. Livebearers do not, and if they aren't fed within a day they usually don't make it.