zerotona

One of my platies had fry last night. She was hiding and acting weird, and I feared she was coming down with whatever my sail-fin molly died from. But this morning there was about 10 fry jumping all over the tank. She didn't even look pregnant and I got her 40 days ago (and I've only ever had female platies) but now her stomach is flat and looks a bit stretched. My other platy had more of a belly than this one so she's probably pregnant too

The fry are still alive but hiding deep in the gravel and under rocks. I can't get them out because they move too fast.. it's impossible.

How will they eat?? And how long does it take usually before they're no longer bite size for my other live bearers? Water conditions are perfect so unless they're eaten by my 2 platies and 3 guppies they will probably live.

armadillo

My fry always eats the left-over food from the adults, like bottom feeders. I have stopped feeding them special food.

Chief_waterchanger

It'll take atleast 3-5 weeks I would say before they are not bitesize for your platies and guppies anymore. Trick is to do more frequent waterchanges, if you can maintain your perfect perameters while doing them. Fish release hormones that inhibit their growth in order to not outgrow their natural habitat. If you normally do 1 a week try 2 a week to see if they grow faster. If you'd rather take it normal as to preserve the routine you've gotten into with it that is totally understandable also. Either way, good luck with the babies. (Heavier planting and plenty of hiding places gives you more of a chance of some surviving)

zerotona

Thanks for the info. I'll try 2 times a week and see how it goes. I won't be able to vaccuum the gravel or I will suck them up!
Last night I saw one of them picking algae off one of the ornaments, then as soon as one of the other fish came near it, it dived back into the gravel.

My other livebearers don't seem all that interested in the fry anyway. The molly I did have stalked the last fry and freaked out all the other fish.

COBettaCouple

the way to get them out would be to take everything out.. fish first, then decorations, then gravel.. each to a big bowl/bucket.. being careful as you do. that's how we got all of our platy fry out of the tank to put them in their own tank.. if you wanted to do that, that is.

zerotona

Well I know there's 3 left and they're about 2 weeks old now. They are living under an ornament. I don't know how many there were to begin with because she had them during the night. I actually bought a net breeding box thing and managed to scoop the fry up and put them in there but they swam through the holes in the net after 5 minutes!

So for now, they're living underneath the ornament. The mother seems a bit poorly since she had them though. Perhaps I'm just not used to seeing her so thin, because she's eating and swimming around normally.

COBettaCouple

maybe that was her last batch..