Unexpected Baby Fish!

[Aqua Rookie]

I've only had fish in my 28 gallon tank for a week now, and I have spotted some microscopic looking fish swimming in and out of the gravel, they are orange in color. After cycling the tank a week ago, I put in two Danio Zebras and two Platys. After the first day, one of the Platys starting looking sluggish with a big belly and was hanging around the bottom. A day later she looked normal size again, and was swimming fine.

I am really nervous that she had these mini babies at the bottom of the tank. Is this going to ruin the chemistry of the tank? I still plan on replacing about twenty percent of the water this weekend, and figured some of these mini fry may get caught up in the siphon. I also heard that some of these fry may be eaten by the older Platys.

A few questions.....what should I do if more fry start popping up? What do they eat?

When do you think I should add more fish, and what kind would you advise.

Thanks

 

[*Fishkies*]

Well it depends if your interested in keeping the babies or not, in order for you to get more fish. Also fry can eat really fine crushed up flake food, or there is a liguify fry food that you can get at your LFS.

 

[mommyof2bettas]

Yes, the platy did give birth, platys are livebearers and they breed like crazy! There should be a ratio of 2 females per male. They can have babies up to 8 times in a row without a male around because they store sperm. They can keep giving birth for a long time, but since she's skinny I'm guessing she's done. The fry will get eaten unless there are LOTS of plants and hiding places. You can put the fry in a breeding/net trap for a while, but then they will need to be moved. Basically any fish that can ft them in their mouth will prebably eat them! They eat finely crushed flakes or liquifry.

 

[Tessla]

Unless you're planning on getting some fish eventually that will eat fry, and most fish will, you can plan on having lots of platys in your tank! They will add to your bioload, not much at first but as they grow. Since your tank is only a week old, I'd wait a while before adding any more fish to your tank, see how the fry situation goes first.

 

[paul_219]

Yeah platies breed like hell. But they are nice fish.

 

[lifebegins]

Thanks for this thread...it just answered my burning question - my red platy's belly has been getting bigger and bigger and I've just identified it's the female.....

I have glowlight and rosy fin tetras and dwarf neon rainbow fish in with mine so I wonder how many fry will survive.... don't have room for any more fish in my tank.

I'm doing a gravel clean tomorrow morning, so I hope my platy's still fat!!

 

[FishRfine]

congrats!

 

[lifebegins]

Thanks! Gravel cleaned, 40% water change, a beautiful spinkling environment with some more (plastic) plants to hide in (my fish don't like the light - but I like to see them!) ... platy still fat ..... phew!