Cherrry123

Ok, so I bought a preggy platy, and I was planning on buying a breeder net to put her in it. I was gone for the weekened and when I got home in the morning the platy was dead. About five hours later I noticed a baby fish swimming in the tank, and I paniked so I ran and got a bowl and filled it with medium temp. water. As soon as I put the bowl down and got ready to put the fish in the bowl, a balloon belly molly came by and ate it. I screamed, then the molly spit it out, I was glad and as soon as I put the fish net in the tank, my dalmation molly came by and ate it. I turned around to get the bowl, and saw it get eaten, I was so upset, but then it must've spit it back out, because I found it and scooped it into the bowl, my brother who was there at the time said thatthere was another one in the tank. So I looked and when I was about to give up I found it andscooped it into the bowl. Then I put the bowl in the bathroom, next to our goldfish that is in a bowl, and out a towel over it, to keep my cats from eating them. I crushed up food and out som in there, will they survive another, oh about two days in the bowl? We were in a state of emergency earlier when I was going to go and buy a net,so I couldn't, the weather is really bad, so I think tomorrow, or Wednesday I'm going to buy one, but will they be ok? I know I shouldn't have put them in a bowl, but I don't have any other fishtanks to put them in yet, is there anything I can do to help them? Also I think the one that got eaten twice is missing an eye, will it survive? Please help me, I know I mde a big mistake!

Kiwwi

Wow thats a long series of unfortunate events.

Is the water in your bowl treated water?
Is there a heater in the bowl?
Is there a filter in the bowl?
Do you have food for the platys?

Fry are more sensitive to what a adult platy would be. As long as you have good water in that bowl and its being filterd and you have tropical temperature waters your fish will survive. Do not forget though that fry need food too.

The fry with the missing eye has a good chance of surviving. If anything it will be the stress that kills the fish, not the eye thing. It still has 1 eye to see with and I am not an expert on platys but like most other fish they should be able to use there other senses to survive.

Cherrry123

Ok, thanks, I might be getting the net tommorow so they don't get to used to the bowl, and when I'm at the store I'll get brine shrimp? Or fry food. Is there a difference? But thanks, I've already found a home for one of the platys when it gets bigger, I hope they survive!

COBettaCouple

Baby brine shrimp are a good food for them, but so is veggie flakes crushed to powder. Either would be good. Omega One veggie flakes are excellent.

A BBS hatchery would need a day running before it would be ready to give you food. We used the black box hatchery that you can get at petsmart, but used treated tap water and ran an airstone in the hatchery. When we wanted to collect BBS, we'd turn off the air pump, take out the airstone, fill the clear tube with treated tap water and then put it in position with a bright light on by the hatchery. The BBS would swim up and then we could just empty the tube into the tank when a fair amount had collected. Just collect enough for them, you don't want them to overeat.

Cherrry123

Ok, thanks but doesn't it come in little squares? If you buy a can-fishfood type thing of it? I'm not that smart when it comes to airstones and everything, but we might get the brine shrimp hatchery when we know alittle more about fish.

lyndatu

Oh, do you mean the cube-like things? They're called worm cubes here in the Philippines. I did mistaken them at first for brine shrimp. Although I'm not sure if it can be fed to fry, it's a very delicious treat for your fish.

In starting a Brine Shrimp hatchery, you will need to buy some brine shrimp eggs(usually comes in small bottles), that when put in water, they will hatch in only a few hours into tiny little shrimps. Those baby shrimps are the ones to be fed to the fish. The eggs can be quite expensive, but I think finely crushed flake food is just fine for the fry.

Oh and platy fry are quite hardy fish, so don't worry.

Good luck! Hope the fry makes it!

COBettaCouple

Yea, that's right. I forget that you can get cubes of brine shrimp. For the fish that you have, those would be usable and it wouldn't be necessary to feed the live BBS. You can thaw a cube in a small sealable container of treated tap water and store that in the fridge for up to a week, feeding from it as needed until it's gone.

Cherrry123

Ok, they didn't have the brine shrimp cubes, so I got whats called baby shrimp, sun dried something, the guy at the fishstore said it would be ok, but I'm not sure, is it ok for the baby fish? I crush half of one up and then drop the rst outdie the breeding box for the rest of the fish.

susitna-flower

Cherry, it is really a good thing that livebearers have so many offspring, they seem to get stressed and die easily.

It was a shame the female died, and you couldn't seperate her, but it might not have made a difference, as even being in a net or box can be stressful. I feel the best way is to just have plenty of java moss , and shells, rocks, or caves for fry to hide in, then leave the pregnant females in a tank you want the fry to grow in, and you will have some survive. You will also loose some, but not all of them. All the moving, netting, different water temperatures and all will kill more in the end.....

Cherrry123

oh ok thans, right now they see to be happy and are swimming, it's the other fish I'm worried about, they keep trying to eat the net to get to the fry, will that get the fry stressed?

COBettaCouple

If it's crushed up small enough, the fry can eat most foods. They could get stressed by the other fish trying to get to them. Some floating plants, real or artificial, inside the net may help them feel more secure by giving them a hiding place.

Cherrry123

Ok, the net that I bought has little fake branches of plants in it, and they are mostly hiding in it, or in the far corners, I don't like that balloon belly molly very much.

COBettaCouple

You could think about putting a tank divider in. The fry could stay in the net for right now, but the divider could section off just the corner that the net is in and keep the other fish away.

Cherrry123

Ok, I found out that he only goes there when food floats over there, and I put a couple of the dried shrimp in the tank, and one of my shrimp ate a whole one! It was funny though,.