Will I Be Overrun?

[mandi]

(*Newbie question alert, haha*)

I have 2 red wag platies (a male and a female) in my 6-gallon eclipse tank. The female just had 11 babies on 8/22. They're in their own 5.5-gallon tank, and the mom is back in the 6-gallon tank with the dad.

What I'm wondering is -- am I going to be overrun with fry?

Since I put the mom back in the tank, the male really hasn't shown much interest in her. They don't fight or anything, but I haven't seen him trying to mate with her either.

I'm just afraid I won't be able to handle lots and lots of baby fish, as I don't have space to keep setting up more aquariums. I just ordered some java-moss online (can't seem to find it locally) so hopefully if I just add that to the parents tank, the next batch of babies can stay in there.

 

[Da_Oz]

Yes you will be. So plan on a way to give away trade sale some of these fish.

 

[clutterydrawer]

You need to get rid of the babies before they get old enough to start breeding themselves AND separate the males from the females. However females can store sperm for a while so you could have more fry on the way even if you split up the parents.

 

[mandi]

I definately plan on giving away the babies as soon as they're ready -- how old is the normal age to take them to a petstore or whatever?