Very Pregnant Platy

[FishySarah]

I have a pregnant platy, and for a few days I've had her in a breeding trap. She was big when I first put her in. Now she is huge. She looks about to explode.

I had another platy give birth (I think) in my tank a while ago, but I never saw any fry, despite breeding grass and a ton of java moss in the tank, I think they all got eaten. I am relatively new to livebearers and I have never had a successful birth with living fry. In the main tank I have a molly, my four platys, five neons, five black longfin tetras, several ottos and four gold barbs- I know the barbs especially would make short work of any fry. I am converting my betta's five gallon to a fry tank. I went out and bought a sponge filter and air pump today, and I have plenty of java moss to put in the tank for the fry hide in. I was planning on putting the pregnant platy in there tonight. But when I got home from the pet store, I decided she was too close to giving birth and I didnt' want her to miscarry or be stressed. So I left her in the breeding trap.

Assuming she births ok, when should I move the fry? I heard that they are very sensitive when they are young. How long can I leave them in the trap? I dont' want thier growth to be stunted or anything. When do you think they should be moved to the fry tank? I will have to test the parameters in the five gallon before moving them, of course. Did I do wrong in letting the female stay in the trap?

I am thrilled with the thought of having my first birth. I bought hikari first bites for the babies. Do I have all my bases covered?

I currently have six baby mollies in another breeder trap in my aquarium, not from my molly, but from the pet store- I went there and they gave me some free baby fish which would otherwise just get eaten. Unfortunately, I started out with eleven. I don't know why they have been dying on me. Most of the deaths occured in the first two days after I got them. There have not been any baby deaths for three days now. I've had them for a week. The six are getting remarkably big in such a short time. I am feeding them hikari first bites four times a day, six when I am home all day and not at work. My molly is a female and is in the early stages of pregnancy too.

I have heard that mollies need salt, but I don't know if my ottos or freshwater snails can take salt. I have never had salt in my tanks. I keep hearing conflicting things about salt- some people swear that mollies need it, others tell me that mollies needing aquarium salt is a myth.

I found a local pet store that will take all the fry that I can't keep. I only have a 29 gallon and plan to keep a molly baby or two, so I will probably not have much room for the platy babies. But I hinted to 'santa claus' that I'd like another tank for Christmas...so we'll see.

Can someone with more experience with livebearers give me some pointers on raising the babies? I will let you guys know when they are born.

 

[theotheragentm]

My experience has shown that the fry are actually quite resilient. You can move them as soon as they are born to a net incubator/separate tank. They can eat flake food if it's crushed up small at first, but will nibble away at normal flakes later. If you want to raise these fry to full growth, they will have to get pretty big until they're quite obviously too big to be eaten by the adults. I've had fry that I thought were large enough. They weren't. Over esimate how large your fry have to be if you really want them to survive. Depending on how large your fry batch is some should surive normally given enough hiding places.

 

[poecilia]

You should only have Livebearers in your tank -not really-- if you like breeding fish you should get atleat a 50 gallon tank and keep your old tanks for fry homes. you should keep live plants with a little bit of algae in the fry's tank so they could munch around it all the time. you should also put a cave in the 50 g. tank for ''unexpected birth'' so they could hide on.