Urgent: What Is In My Tank?

[Spitter33]

I have 3 platies (all female) and 3 guppies (all male) in my tank. When I bought the platties a few weeks ago I was told they may be pregnant. 
 
I just noticed a really weird living thing in my tank and I'm wondering if it's a platy egg or something of the sort. It's super tiny, about the size of one of my rock pebbles. And it MOVES. It crawls around the bottom of the tank. It's also transparent, it honestly looks like a microscopic snail shell with something inside it. It also has 2 super thin tiny transparent antenna like things on it. 
 
What could this possibly be? Is this a sack of fish eggs? But why would it move if it is? 
 
I looks exactly like a new born snail but (although I have no clue what a new born snail looks like). It's kind of like a tiny curled up worm or something. 
 
How could it possibly be a snail though if I've never had snails in this tank? I'm kind of worried and confused right now.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Do you have any plants in your tank? Snails could have come in on them.

 

[Spitter33]

Yes I have about 6-7 live plants. That's what I was guessing too maybe. But the last plant I bought was over a week ago and it was a Java Fern, hm. 
 
This thing is now crawling up the side of my mountain decoration! So there's no way this could be a baby fry? 
 
This is so weird.

 

[attibones]

Can you get a picture of it? Very likely is a snail.

 

[fluttermoth]

It's a snail, you've described a baby ramshorn exactly.

 

[Spitter33]

I looked up baby ramshorn, that's exactly what it is! 
 
So it most likely came from one of the plants then I guess? That's so weird. I haven't bought any new plants in about a week so it's over a week old, how long do these things take to grow? 
 
I've been wanting to get a snail anyway so I'm fine with this is it likely to survive in there or should I move it to a smaller tank until it grows? 

 

[Byron]

Unless you have voracious snail eaters (like Puffers or loaches) in the tank, which you don't, the snail will survive and you will see many others no doubt.  Some people cringe at this, but snails are a sign of a healthy aquarium.  They can get into places and eat all organic matter including fish excrement, breaking it down faster for the bacteria to then deal with.  They also eat some algae, though not sufficient if there is an "epidemic" of algae, but they help.  They will tend to reproduce to the level sustained by the food they find, and that is a good thing.
 
Byron.

 

[Spitter33]

A snail can reproduce by itself? 
 
So they will keep multiplying in a sense? What happens when you have to many then? I was also wondering the same thing about fry. What do people do with their fry? Because I can't have an insanely over stocked tank nor do I want to kill them... I made sure to just get one gender of each species, but I was warned my female platies may have already gotten pregnant. 
 
I feel like if I brought them to my lfs they would just use them as food or something and I'm not to fond of that idea but I guess it's the best option? Unless I turn my bathtub into a pond

 

[Byron]

Here's a site with info on ramshorns:
http/www.redramshorn.co.uk/ramshorn-snail-breeding.html
 
You shouldn't have too many.  I have hundreds in my 115g, counted up to 600 or 700 one day, then gave up.  They are very tiny, and not surprisingly, few live past 3/16 of an inch, because of insufficient food.  A few do get to maybe 1/2 inch, and thus the little ones.  If you don't overfeed, you will not have too many snails.
 
Fry are a bit different; livebearers can produce so many so often you can easily get overstocked, as they cannot possibly eat all of them.  And yes, a female livebearer can be impregnated by a male and even before the fry themselves are sometimes discernible as male/female without some magnification.  Many stores will not take the fry as they can't sell them, at least for common species.
 
Byron.

 

[Mamashack]

You may find the the female platy will cull the fry herself and if she doesn't then the others might. Just be aware that they can produce several lots of fry for up to 6 months on just one mating so once they start producing they can drop a batch of fry every 4-5 weeks. Unless you've got oodles of room, let nature take it's course and maybe only one or two will survive from each batch.

 

[Spitter33]

I ended up picking up 1 more guppy and 1 more platy just now because I wanted a total of 4 of each. I asked for a female platy because all of my other platies are females, but I think she might have given me a male... His bottom fin is a lot more pointed than the others (all the others are kind of spread out). 
 
If only 1 or so fry live per batch I guess that's fine, but that's still a few more platies a year? My tank is completely stocked with 4 guppies and 4 platies right? I'm wondering if there's a fish I could get that is fine alone, and will eat all the fry but will leave my guppies and platties alone... although my tank is stocked so it would have to be a really tiny fish. Any ideas of what i could do?

Oh and also, the lady working there was telling me how platties and guppies have to be in salt water... I never knew this, is this true? 

 

[Byron]

I would not put much confidence in advice from that store.  No, platy and guppy do not have to be in salt water.  We do call them freshwater fish for a reason, tell her.  It is true that livebearers in general can "manage" to a certain extent in brackish water, but this is not necessary and going down this road can lead to other issues.  None of the wild forms of these fish (guppy and platy) ever see brackish or marine environments.  Their need for higher mineral in the water is why they can tolerate salt better, but they still should not be subjected to it on a permanent basis.
 
You will never find any fish that will eat all the fry.  There will simply be far too many.  Some will find refuge and survive.  And besides this, it is not healthy to feed fry to fish.  There is a real nutritional deficiency and this will only cause health issues for the other fish that eat the fry.  A couple here and there is not going to cause trouble, but the sort of steady diet you are thinking of certainly will.  You will have to remove the fry from the tank as they appear.
 
Byron.

 

[Spitter33]

Seriously? That's insane because the platy and guppy are kept in saltwater tanks in that store even! When she asked if I had saltwater and I told her no she was saying how I'd need to get some asap. 
 
But hm okay makes sense. So if I'm just to remove all the fry, what exactly do I do with them? I'm hoping the majority of them will die off naturally, but the few that survive... I do have a 2.5 gallon tank I could store them in, then I could try and give them away to others with aquariums maybe. I'm assuming most people just kill them? If so, how do they go about doing that the most humane way possible? 

 

[Mamashack]

I wonder if she was referring to the TDS salts rather than "saltwater" - it does sound like she was confusing the issue unnecessarily tho.
I've never killed any of mine - mama platy did all the culling that was necessary. I'd let nature take it's course - it's not like the fish are going to be getting fry every day of the week, just once every 4-5 weeks. If you want fewer fry to survive remove possible hiding places. Or you could give all the females away and keep only males. That's the only way to be sure you won't be expanding the population.

 

[Byron]

Livebearers must have moderately hard or harder water; they depend upon this for essential "hard" minerals such as calcium and magnesium.  Soft water fish do not have this need, quite the opposite, as such water will cause calcium deposits in the kidneys among other issues.  But "hard" water is not salt water.
 
Spitter33, I see you are in Canada.  Many areas have moderately hard tap water; check with your local water authority, they should give the GH and KH on their website.  This will suffice if it is at least moderately hard.  If you happen to live where I do, in southwestern BC, you will have very soft water and livebearers willnot survive long without increasing the hardness.  There are easy ways to do this that I can explain if this is something you need to deal with.
 
On the fry issue, my experience many years ago was that a lot of fry managed to survive; that was with mollies, though I would not expect a platy to be any more canibalistic.  Anyway, you have several females you said earlier, and it is possible they were impregnated before you got them, or soon will be if you now have a male.  Each female is capable of releasing fry every 4-6 weeks, and depending upon the age and condition of the female, fry can number up to 70 per release, though 20-25 is more usual.  Be prepared, as leaving these in the tank will cause issues one way or the other.
 
Byron.