When Will We Have Babies?

[Brandi.]

So, I am new to this whole fish thing, but quickly getting to be a "fish nerd". LOL! I was given a 14-gallon tank by my cousin and the first fish I got were some Mollies and Platies.

Well, I have a pregnant Platy (the only one left, the other two died because as I said I'm new at this and killed them in the process of cleaning the tank...). I'm not sure when she became pregnant, but I noticed it about 4-5 weeks ago. I have been doing a lot of my own research, and moved her into a separate tank on Sunday, sure she was going to give birth any day now. As of this morning she still hasn't "popped". I'm getting anxious and nervous.

This is a picture of her as of this morning. (Sorry it's blurry). She hasn't been eating, has been keeping to the lower end of the tank, and I noticed her breathing really heavy last night. She has had that "squared off" look since I moved her. Any suggestions or tips?

And, I think my two black mollies mated yesterday, so hopefully we have molly babies soon, too.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Brandi.
Your fish may be suffering from being placed into a new tank, one that has not been set up very long. If so, a huge water change with dechlorinated water will set her to acting and looking better. She really is large but does not look especially squared off to me. We have a thread pinned here at the top of the common livebearers section where I followed one of my mollies from one drop to the next and I took lots of pictures along the way. The idea was to help people learn to judge what we mean by terms like squared off by giving a real world example of it that they can study. I have a link to that article in my signature but this link will take you there too.

 

[Brandi.]

Thanks. I will be doing water changes on both tanks today. Like I said, I could just be a little to anxious, and this is my first set of babies, ever!

Here is a picture a little clearer.

 

[OldMan47]

The clear picture shows a platy that is less than a week to her next drop. As long as you can maintain the water quality in that separate tank, we should be talking about how to care for over 20 fry in less than a week. Keep a close eye on her tank since platy fry are so darned small they can be hard to spot.

 

[Brandi.]

Thank you so very much!! I am actually in the process of getting a 55-gallon tank to move my other fish into, so that when the babies get big enough, I can move them over to the 14-gallon tank I was given.

But, I did have a question. I am having a hard time finding fry food in town here. I talked to the owner of the pet store and she said that she uses Brewer's Yeast to start all her babies. Is that a good idea?

 

[OldMan47]

For young livebearer fry, just crush some of the adult flakes between finger tips. Livebearer fry are quite large and can accept food that big.

 

[Min8040]

Thanks. I will be doing water changes on both tanks today. Like I said, I could just be a little to anxious, and this is my first set of babies, ever!

Here is a picture a little clearer.

Very nice clear pic. Is that a filter intake in the pic? If yes and you are gonna let her have the fry in this tank you might want to put a filter sponge or some kinda stocking over it to avoid fry from getting sucked up.
Keep us posted on how she goes. Enjoy.

Min.

 

[Brandi.]

Thanks for the info. I did put something over the filter intake so no babies will be sucked up... as of right now (4 pm my time) we still so not have babies, but my platy is still huge and obviously pregnant... but she has been hanging out in the corner behind the filter since yesterday. She moves around the tank a bit, but always settles back behind the filter... is this normal or a good/bad sign?

 

[OldMan47]

It is often a sign of a female looking for a good place to drop her fry.