Father

Hi there

well as strange as this may seam I am a little confused by my platties. I purchased two female and one male platy from my local tropical supplier, both females were pregnant. One gave birth about three weeks ago and we spotted the fry in the main tank without much trouble. about a week later we spotted more fry, much smaller than the first ones we spotted although the second fish had not given birth yet. Now we have even more fry they look very young but still the second fish has not given birth yet. The one that has given birth is still sculcking in the place she gave birth in the first place, she comes out and has a swim round but then goes back there.

So... Do they take a number of weeks to give birth? Is there some reason that my fry are three different ages.
I hope someone can help... sorry for the long boring post

Pete

Callum The Cat

COBettaCouple

Platys drop fry every 25 days or so. It's possible the tiniest fry are her 2nd batch. They also can drop fry over as long as 5 days, so that could account for the ones you found a week after the first ones.

They sometimes like to rest/recover before and after dropping a batch so that is probably her reason for hiding out. you should be able to tell if she still has fry to drop if any little black dots are still in her stomach.

mistycheri

I have a pregnant molly that has only dropped one fry so far and that was several days ago. She's still pregnant and looks like she's gonna pop. I've noticed after raising several fry litters that the fry are are different levels of gestation and only come out when fully developed. Hope this helps.
My newest little fry baby was born in my 55 gal. tank and after only a couple of days is swimming around with all the other fish. The last batch I had I caught and put in a breeder tank that floats in the tank. One morning I woke up and one of the big female mollys had jumped into the breeder box with the fry. (I hadn't put the lid on the box) I freaked thinking she was eating the babies but she was just eating the food that had settled to the bottom of the box. I counted all my fry and wasn't missing any. Soooo, I decided I'l let em out in the community with the other fish and see how they would do. They grew up and never had a problem with the other fish trying to eat them.
NOW I DON'T ADVISE THIS FOR ANYONE ELSE!
These were my fish and only I was responsible for them. It works for me and the type fish I have in my tank. Anyone else should use their own judgement in how to raise their fry.

COBettaCouple

that was one HUNGRY molly! but then, i've never seen a livebearer that wasn't starving 24/7.

uprightandlocked

AMEN! My mollys will finish eating and then all swim to the front of the tank and just stare. As if I already forgot I just finished feeding them. Crazies!

mistycheri

Sooo, just how much should you feed mollys? Just curious what others think. I feed all my fish once in the morning and once again in the evening b4 going to bed. And still, if I go near the tank during the day they all swarm together at the top expecting me to feed them again.

armadillo

Hi Cheri Ann.

My mollies will start begging 10 minutes after eating, no matter how hearty their dinner was. They're awful like that!

I used to feed 2x a day but my nitrates were sky high really quickly from all the fish waste, eventhough I never served any more than what they ate. Overfeeding also caused them constipation (poop stayed hanging from the fish).

Now I feed them once a day and the nitrates are more stable.

I also feed leave a piece of cucumber 1x per week for 1.5 day.

I also fast them 1x per week for one day.

COBettaCouple

We feed our platys 2x a day, a small amount of flakes, pellets or peeled peas. (we feed half of what we'd feed in a day each meal to aid in digestion) we fast them on sundays.

armadillo

Christian fish! I won't ask what they eat on Fridays!

COBettaCouple

lol.. ok, maybe it's because i'm american, but why would they eat something particular on fridays?

armadillo

Christians have to eat fish on Fridays. Can't remember where that tradition came from. So your fish are not christian after all.

COBettaCouple

hmm.. that's interesting.. maybe it's something religious Christians do or is a cultural thing, i really can't see a reason to eat fish particularly on fridays. We're Christian and haven't heard of eating fish on fridays. yea, our fish couldn't do that or they'd "be an abomination!"

armadillo

Am guessing your fish eat fish from their flakes, Dave!

Oh, funny. In Europe (at least in France and Belgium), Friday is fish-day in christian communities. So much so that it's become a bit of a tradition in most public places serving food, even non-religious ones.

COBettaCouple

hmm.. very interesting, there could be religious denominations here that do that, but i've never been much on religious ceremonies and all that, i feel faith, belief, relationship is more important. i guess in england nobody would notice fishy friday as all the fish & chips shops everywhere make every day a fish day. during world war 2, i understand in the US that fridays were "meatless fridays".. ok that's random.

COBettaCouple

how are those platy fry doing?

armadillo

Ooooh, but hang on. The fish on friday could be a catholic thing.

COBettaCouple