cg49me

Let me preface by saying I never intended to have baby fishies in the first place - both my adult platys are ladies. Best conclusion I can come to is that I bought one (if not both) of them pregnant.

Anyway, I've got at least seven little blue moonies swimming around now, all about 0.25" long, give or take a millimeter. They've been around for maybe three weeks now? The only thing in the tank that could bother them are the adult platys, and the tank is well enough planted that the little guys can hide easily. I've been grinding up the flake food I feed the tank, and they've been taking to it just fine.

I'm headed to Vegas for spring break tomorrow, and I'd read that the fish will be okay for a week without food. I've actually upped the number of feedings per day in that tank to try and get the fry to grow, though I've lowered the quantity per feeding. Will the fry also be alright while I'm gone, or should I hit the LFS before I leave and invest in an auto-feeder?

Shawnie

the only thing I worry about is not feeding them while you are gone, may make them more agressive to eating the fry ...although they can go without, they will likely find the babies to eat because they arent being fed ...I would get a breeder box and put the babies in there and feed them all with a water change after before you go...skip the auto feeder

SammyJ

The breeder trap is a great idea, that or a breeder net. The net would give them more room to swim around and still protect them from the larger fish.

agabr123

shawnie's idea is best, your adult fish will be fine without food for a week, but i'm not sure how well the fry can handle it. i'd skip the auto feeder though, too many horror stories about entire things of food being dumped into the tank and that kind of thing.

shadowavenger

you may have waited too long to post this if you are leaving tommorow, but one thing you could do is get a small acrylic tank and a heater and a sponge filter. Transfer the fry to that and get some liquid food and put it in one of those hamster bottles and set it over the tank, that way it will drip and put nutrients into the water. may not be the greatest idea but it could work.

the really bad thing about fry is that you can't just feed them since their mouths are so small so a couple of weekend feeder cubes would be useless, but that could keep the bigger fish satisfied and won't go for the fry. So I say go ahead and overfeed the fry so that they can get as much to eat as possible, then dump in a couple weekend feeders for the bigger fish.

You could also put an algae wafer in the grass with the fry and they can chew on that too.

cg49me

Well, got back early this morning. Had two casualties - a couple of my ottos didn't make it. That's probably not related to me being away for a week, though.

I'm not really sure how many baby platys were in there to begin with, but a bunch (at least five) are still around, and they've about doubled in size.

The one REALLY bad thing is algae - it went absolutely bonkers while I was away. I'm gonna have to scrub, and probably black out the tanks for a few days. I had them on a 10hr timer, but I guess that was too much.

agabr123

sorry about your otos how long had you had them?

cg49me

Only a week. I still have three that are okay.

agabr123

ah okay, then yeah chances are you probably wouldn't have been able to prevent that they're such cute little fish but the majority of them die in the first month

shadowavenger

I actually got lucky when my molly had her fry. she had about 50 to start with and there are still about 37 still alive, most of the ones who died probably buried themselves in the gravel of my auxiliary tank. I got a breeder box and moved them to that in my main tank and counted them at the same time, and I had 42. I lost a couple, mostly the smaller ones who were probably doomed anyways, but the vast majority survived, and the tank wasn't even cycled yet so they had all kinds of to deal with! they show great resilience! The problem I have now is that I have no where to put them. I am going to keep 6 of the bigger ones which I already transferred and 3 will go to my familys tank, but that still leaves 28 I have to find homes for because I will already be over stocked considered the the number of fish I already have. I have been asking everyone if they want a fish but no one even has an aquarium. I just don't want to have to take them to the pet store because I have grown quite fond of the little guys and I know they would be doomed to the feeder tank and I don't want my fish to be fed to a piranha, I raised them since they were born. But they are starting to get big and I have to find somewhere for them to go. I've even considered getting another tank, but it would have to be at least 20 gallons for that many fish and I simply don't have the money, space or time to manage another tank. So I don't know what to do about them.

JESS01

I have molly fry. Not quite as much as you, maybe 15-17 fry. I have mine in a breeding net. I'm keeping a male and selling the rest to a LFS I am fond of. One is going to my friend who has guppy fry that we might trade. I would go to a breeder that knows what they're doing, unlike petco or petsmart. They have more knowledge and can fit your needs by having time to listen to you.

hozzie

My platy had babies one night... in the morning they ate 4 as I watched while my daughter went for the net to fish em out. We were left with none! until i changed the water a day later when I found one little chap swimming in the bucket! He is now in a breeder box in the platy tank but even so the adults still try and eat him when they notice him.... banging the box. tank is well planted and I dont deliberately breed them but do wonder how people manage to have 30 - odd babies survive in the tank with the adults. Maybe mine just like the taste of their offspring!

Doing a water change today...you never know, maybe i'll find baby fry a friend. Wish him luck!