redlessi

So I have a bijillion guppy fry in my tank and today spotted 1 orange platy fry. Do you think that there was only 1 or the rest were snacks. The platies have been in the tank for about 2 months now and this is the first fry I have seen. I thought they had lots at one time. I have a lot of bushy plants that the guppy fry hide in and there are 3 batches of them.

Nick G

There were probably a lot more, but the reason only one survived is probably because they're orange, and thus will have a lot harder time hiding than the dull coloured guppy fry.

redlessi

That makes so much sense because they are really orange, almost neon compared to the guppy fry. Today I saw another one so now there are 2 and they are adorable.

Thanks much

kwesdog

When I first started fish keeping platies were the first fish I got (not knowing anything about them). I had 3 pregnant platies that I bought and I soon had 60 or so fry. I thin learned really quick what the female platies do and look like before they drop and started moving them into a breeder net. I then had so much success that with those fish I didnt know what todo with all of them because I could not give the fry away fast enough. Then another lesson learned was how to keep them seperated and stop them from breeding. Also what type of fish could I keep with them that would not hurt the adults but big enough to eat the fry so I got a couple of dwarf gouramis. I havent had a platy issue since. I remember the days though when I was over run with them and I don't want that to happen out of control again.

Have fun and keep at it because you will have more fry than you know what to do with soon enough.

Harry

Llama

You know what, I'm facing the exact same problem as you are. (on a smaller scale). It never ceases to amaze me just how many guppy fry I can see (transparent -_-), but the platy fry... very few survive.

redlessi

I ended up with 100's of guppy fry but only 6 platies after about 6 months. So I figure only 1-2 survived per batch. They are such a bright orange, which made it harder to hide and they were more of a target.