0morrokh

'Nother random platy question. I know a lower temp makes the female's gestation period longer. I'm horrible at remembering time but I'm pretty sure I've had my trio of platys for at least 2 months. I do remember the larger female looked already gravid when I bought her (I remember the LFS guy commented on it)...and neither of the females have dropped yet although they both look insanely fat. I had set my temp to mid-70s but between a frigid bedroom and poor circulation in the tank the temp has been down to 71-72 for a while. (I just got around to turning the heater up again although they all seemed perfectly happy.) Sooo I'm wondering how much that temp would slow down their gestation, or if there must be some other factor causing them to put it off so long.

EDIT: I found my post when I got them and it was October 26. So that's like what, a month and a half I think. So the large female anyway is a couple weeks overdue, the small female idk when exactly she got preggo so she might be on time.

Chief_waterchanger

They should be at 78-81 degrees ideally. The constant lower temperatures may mess with their ability to carry the fry to term. Also, they may be having them and the fry being eatten before you see them.

Guppy, Platy, Molly gestation periods are all 28-32 days normally. The temperature spectrum of a --couple-- of degrees lower than their ideal temp is going to put you closer to the 32 days, where as if you were at 81 or so degrees it would probably be closer to 28 days, but the low to mid 70s is not what they should be kept at for ideal keeping or breeding conditions.

Best of luck with the baby making.

0morrokh

Really? I've always thought that livebearers liked temps more in the mid 70's. Is the 78-81 just to maximize breeding output, or do platys really prefer that high temps?

I thought of that but they're both only getting fatter, if anything.

COBettaCouple

That's one of those misinformation things floating around. We found our platy held her fry when we had her in a cooler 'drop tank' but dropped them as soon as she was back in the normal temp. water.

0morrokh

Wow I had no idea they liked warmer temps, thanks for the info CWC & Dave.