Breeding Platies

  1. timmyboy73 Initiate Member

    I have a Biorb which is now about 9 months old. I have 2 pearl danios, 1 female swordtail,  4 neon tetras, 2 glowlight tetras, 3 rummie nose tetras and about 7 baby platies. Originally I had just the one female platy, but she died a couple of months having had her. A couple of weeks after she died, 1 baby appeared which has now grown to maturity, a month or two later 3 tiny fry appeared from under the gravel in the bottom of the biorb which have all also survived and now I have another three or four tiny fry also.

    I presume the female platy that died was pregnant when I got her, but I don`t understand where all the other babies are coming from!

    Can anybody help ?

    Thanks
     

  2. Gunnie Well Known Member Member

    Your babies have probably been hiding. You have quite a few fish in that tank that would have loved to eat them as a snack. What's a biorb?
     

  3. timmyboy73 Initiate Member

    A biorb is a tank from Reef-one (http://www.reef-one.com/aquariums/biorb.htm)

    Understand what you are saying, but what I don`t understand is how do I get one baby platy, then a month or so later another two, and then a month later another 3. All are different size and therefore (I presume) different ages. The first one to appear is now approx 3/4 inch, the next two are about 1/2 inch and the last three are now about 1/4 inch long.

    In my local aquarium shop, the guy there told me that platies can give birth in 4-5 batches, which would make sense except that the original platy I had died about a month before the first baby appeared. What is the gestation time for a platy ? Is it possible for the platy to be interbreeding with the swordtail ? I can`t think of any other explanation.

    Many thanks for your help!
     

  4. fletch Member Member

    its about 28 days gestation. That sounds weird. I can only think that the original babies started mating pretty quickly and had more babies.
     

  5. Butterfly Moderator Moderator Member

    Platys and Swordtails will interbreed since they are from the same family(Xiphophorus).
    Carol
     

  6. Jason Well Known Member Member

    I think livebeares can start breeding from the age of 3 months so maybe the first lot were breeding
     

  7. ricky2272 Initiate Member

    My platy had babys and sha had six that survived bit i did not see themnall at the same time. i saw the first one and then a few days l8r saw the next and then it was about 2 weeks be fo i saw the nex two and then another week befor i saw the last 2. they are all grown up now and breeing. ;D. not together obviously because then they may be deformaties. i used to just keep them in my comunity tank but my cold water fis died so i cleand that out throughly and pit a heater in. it already had a filter and a light. now that tank is my breeding tank.

    I hope to breed many moore platys in there lol