Journey of my platy/swordtail fry!!!!

This is going to be a journal of my fry as they grow up until they are adults or I give them away.


About two weeks ago, I was doing some tank maintenance, removing some old shells, and other stuff. Anyways, I bumped a plant and found fleck, my first baby fish of this journey. Of course, I ended up catching them and put them in my breeder box. Fleck got their name by my mom, who was looking at the baby fish and said “That baby is so tiny, it’s like a fleck!” The name fleck stuck after we both agreed fleck is a great name. Fleck has tiny black specks at the time they were named. Now fleck has very similar patterns to one of my female platies, who I assume is his/her mother.


About a week after finding fleck, my Mickey Mouse platy was looking HUGE! Sure enough, the next morning, there were baby fish swimming all throughout the tank. I saw some get eaten, but I saved 4. They were so tiny and I was scared fleck would eat them! After research I was certain fleck would not bother my new fry.

The next day, my little sister pointed out a fry swimming into a log. I tried to catch it but couldn’t find it. Eventually though, I found it and caught it. Same batch of fry from the day before. Those 5 fry from my Mickey Mouse platy are about a week old now.


Ok, we’re finally at today. This afternoon I was casually watching the tank (like I normally do) and feeding my fry. All of a sudden, I see a fry swim out of my plant. I grab my net and after a couple tries I catch it. When I put it in the box, it is noticeably smaller than the other fry (about 1/4-1/2 the size). Later, I was watching the tank again when I see something moving in the corner of my tank. I grab my net, and when I come back (after a couple seconds) it’s gone. I look around for a couple minutes, until I spot a fry on the opposite side of my tank, swimming around the gravel. This guy was a chase. He went behind my heater, by the gravel, and jolted all around the tank. Gosh he almost got eaten a couple times but avoided that too. That fry is the same size as the one I caught earlier, and I wonder if a fish gave birth, though none showed signs of pregnancy. Could be platy or swordtail fry.


This next fry is my favorite. I want to call him sponge but I don’t really know which fry he is. Sponge is insanely smart. He found this gap between my filter intake tube and a bio-filter sponge. I could not catch him. After an hour, I finally lured him out of his hole, but I lost him. I checked the log, and there he was. But he escaped! Almost got him in the middle of tank, but he escaped again. After searching plants and other decor for him, I checked the treasure chest my little sister added. Scooped it up, and there he was! Finally he didn’t escape! All of my fry are so cute and I can’t wait to grow them up!


I’ll try to make a journal log every day. I’ll update on how he’s doing, his colors, and I’ll upload pictures every day. I am going on vacation in a week, I’ll update on who they are staying with and try to upload pictures of they send any.

 

i found 5 suviving fry from either swordtail or a swordtail/platy hybrid, ive had them in a spare 5 gal tank since the 9/7/2022 and they are all a bit past 1cm but yours look lot bigger then mine, ive fed mine crushe flakes, pellets, loads of frozen foods but i dont have any live foods to feed them so they might be growing a bit slower. Mine will grow to be orange with black dots i believe. Ill add photos soon if i can.. best of luck!

 

i found 5 suviving fry from either swordtail or a swordtail/platy hybrid, ive had them in a spare 5 gal tank since the 9/7/2022 and they are all a bit past 1cm but yours look lot bigger then mine, ive fed mine crushe flakes, pellets, loads of frozen foods but i dont have any live foods to feed them so they might be growing a bit slower. Mine will grow to be orange with black dots i believe. Ill add photos soon if i can.. best of luck!

I don’t think it really matters what you feed, though it is best to feed live food. I made them a mix of food but when they were younger I fed them a fry food with the occasional crushed freeze dried brine shrimp. I feed a mix now because of the size differences so they can all get the food size they want/would eat. It’s basically a complete mix of all the foods I feed to my adults, plus fry food. The mix is of crushed omega one veggie + super color pellets, crushed spirulina and color enhancing flakes, powdered freeze dried bloodworms, crushed Spirulina brine shrimp, fry food, and some bottom feeder shrimp pellets. I feed 5-7 times a day and the heater is set to 79 but it gets hot here during the current heat wave so the temperature is usually 82.

 

Day 2 of the journal!

So much progress got done today. I really like the look of their new tank, and I discovered multiple new filters that I for sure will buy more of for my future tanks.

This morning I got up and completely changed the water from my 1 gal fry grow out tank. The water smelled gross and went stagnant from me not putting a filter in. Completely changed water and added prime and some bottled bacteria.

Today is the day I get a filter! I told my dad that we should go to the pet store near my moms work when we picked her up to grab what we need for the new tank. He wanted to order online, so he could get a Penn plax because he really likes those. On my 20 gallon main tank we have a Penn plax cascade 100 and it is really quiet, probably the most quiet one I’ve seen. It works well and gets the job done. I did find a small version of the cascade, but also found Penn plax small/betta world filter, and I absolutely love that as well. We were going to buy the small world filter but it didn’t arrive in time so we didn’t.

So, we went to the store (pet supplies plus) and got a tetra internal power filter for 1-4 gallons, but I was thinking about the 5-10 gallon one as well. We also got an aqueon flat 7.5 watt heater, a marina glass floating thermometer, and some decor. The decor I got a fins first aquatic 6 inch plastic plant and a fins first white seahorse coral. (They didn’t have names). Pics of the tank below:





Ok, let’s talk about my fry! I feel terrible because I tried catching and saving a fry but ended up causing it to come out of hiding and get eaten. I know it’s normal but it still is sad. All 9 of my fry are happy and healthy and enjoy every feeding. My adult fish always try to eat their food through the breeder box! The fry I caught yesterday have grown a little, but it’s barely noticeable. I can’t wait for all my babies to be adults! Todays pics:View attachment 854926

 

Day 3!

The babies have grown so much. It’s so cute watching them swim around. Some of the babies from my Mickey Mouse platy are starting to get their marks on their tail! Also, flecks color is starting to come in. While he is cute like this, I can’t wait to see what he looks like!

I did some maintenance on my fry grow out tank. I changed roughly 10 percent of the water and replaced it with tank water, then added some aquarium salt. I also added some filter media. The filter is a tetra internal power filter for 1-4 gallons, and all the media it comes with is a tetra whisper bio-bag filter cartridge. I decided to add some de-nitrate rocks that I’ve never used before, so hopefully they work good. I also cut up a bio-sponge for some more biological filtration.

I really should have done more research for my heater. Pet supplies plus only had the aqueon 7.5 watt flat heater in stock, so that’s what I got. After reading the reviews I was skeptical but used the heater anyways. It’s been slowly raising the temperature since last night and is currently at a pretty stable 86.5, which it has been at for about an hour or so. I’m not going to use it because I am afraid of what it might do while I’m away, so I ordered a heater off Amazon. It is scheduled to arrive the day before I leave so fingers crossed it arrives on time. Here is the link for the heater below:
https://www.amazon.com/YukiHalu-Submersible-Thermometer-Temperature-Controller/dp/B09WYBS3FN/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=2S0HRKQ8JJDC3&keywords=10+watt+aquarium+heater&qid=1658971422&sprefix=10watt+aqua,aps,90&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzVEwzSzZMWjlZSVFNJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNzcxODg3M0pSMllPVFRYSDU0RSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTA0MTE5MUwzUlhUV00xWFc2RSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX3Bob25lX3NlYXJjaF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl&th=1


Anyways, all of my fish and babies are doing great. Hopefully they all survive while I’m gone!

Edit: I forgot to add the pictures but here you go:

 

Sorry I forgot to update last night but I will now. Day 4!

I didn’t do anything yesterday so this post will be pretty short. The one gallon is doing good, I tested the waters and it is at 2 ammonia, 0.3 nitrite, and 5 nitrates. The cycling process is happening!

The newest babies that are a couple days old are doing great. They are more active and not trying to hide in the plants, and are getting bigger. The design on the Mickey Mouse platies are starting to develop more than before. Fleck has a slightly stronger red than before, and I think I’m going to release him when we leave for vacation.

I’d update with pictures but I don’t turn the light on till 9. I’ll edit my post then and add the pictures.

Ok, here’s the pics:

 

Day 5!

I’m so confused. My youngest fry are starting to develop black coloring (yay!), but it matches (I think) the mom of fleck. But fleck was born 3 weeks ago. It could be possible that it was longer but I don’t think so.

At first when I saw the markings, I only saw two black dots on the edge of their body, right before their back fin. I thought the mom was my gold twinbar platy, until I looked further. After a little bit of examination on the same fry, I noticed a dot on the middle of his body. This pattern only matches my red calico platy, the mom of fleck.

This confused me but I came up with two theories. Either my tuxedo platy mated with a platy with dots on its tail (it was in an assorted tank when I bought it, last one left), my twinbar platy mated with a platy with dots on its body (I’m pretty sure it was just her, another female, and a male in the tank) or my red calico platy gave birth to fleck a week before I found him and then gave birth to a new batch a couple days ago. I really don’t know, I guess time will tell.

My plans to release fleck before vacation are confirmed. Flecks growing a belly and he’s pretty long now (maybe 2-3 cm now). I did a test where I took a chunk of food off my freeze dried brine shrimp cubes, made it the shape of fleck, soaked it, then let it swim around the tank as dinner. My fish pecked at it but could not fully swallow. Fleck should be safe, if not, he has plenty of hiding spots. Best of luck with life, fleck!

 

Day 6! Todays update is early today because I am going outside for a while and building a fire, the going in and turning out light. TMI? Probably.


Today I got the confirm message of who we are keeping our babies with. My entire family is friends with this family, we go over every few months, and my best friend since kindergarten is in that family. They’ve kept fish before, but they always died. They overfeeded and didn’t do tank maintenance. I’m pretty sure they did research on it and ended up getting a turtle, named sugar. This is why I included an updated care guide, a small food amount so they ration instead of over feeding, and other basic maintenance stuff.

Don’t worry, I trust them with my fish and they have plenty of pet keeping experience.


Still trying to figure out who the mom of the babies is. I guess I wont be able to tell until I return!


Oh and I’m rescaping their tank. I plan to make it more fry-friendly so I don’t have to keep them on a small container or put them through any stress. I currently have 4 scape ideas drawn out and am in the process of making more. My favorites are the forest tank, river tank, and graveyard tank. All are planted and have driftwood.

 

Day 7!

My fry are now 1 week, 2 weeks, and 4 weeks old now! I’m releasing fleck in a couple days. Nervous but excited to come back to the little guy swimming around the tank. Just gotta hope he doesn’t get eaten.

Don’t think I’m going to add more decor. He should be big enough to not get eaten, even so he has 1 huge bushy plant, 1 medium sized plant, two micro plants, two micro caves, and 1 medium barrel decor. My tank isn’t the most natural/fry friendly, which is why I plan to rescape with driftwood, rocks, live plants, and more fry friendly things.

Leaving for the biggest vacation of my life in a couple days. Wednesday’s the day. So nervous and excited.


The tank for the baby fish is all set up. The filter itself has started to seed and so has the bio-sponge I’ve been soaking in the main tanks filter for a month. Should be enough to handle 8 fry’s bioload for a month.

Nervous to release fleck. My entire family has gotten attached to him, it would be tragic if he got eaten. I’m praying he doesn’t and we come back to a beautiful fish that looks just like their mama.

I do think that if fleck does get eaten, we got backups. The only thing is that fleck was the first fry to survive, so I have more of an attachment to him then my other fry. The week old fry are developing the same marking fleck had when I found them.

Nothing much else really happened. Good night/whatever time of day you read this!

 

Day 8!


My plans are to release fleck. Everything is moving so fast. I hope to come back to a beautiful red fish swimming around!

Heater is coming tomorrow by 9 pm. This time tomorrow, I’ll be updating about how the babies could be gone or not! We’re dropping my cat off to board at the vet’s tomorrow as well. I’m gonna miss her!

Cleared up the fry tank. Did a 50% WC to get the nitrates/other stuff down. Nice and clear now. I plan to move the sponge that has been sitting in my filter into the filter in the 1 gal tomorrow. Gosh and I have to pack too. I don’t want to say goodbye to my fish!

Anyways, today was a short post. Tomorrows will probably be much longer, with so much stuff happening. Nervous but excited for vacation! Hoping all my fish will be fine.

 

Got back from vaca a couple days ago, don’t feel like counting the days to see what day it is lol




It seems I didn’t do day 9, unless it got deleted.

Anyways, we’re picking up the babies on Monday, from the pics my friend sent me they are all doing well and have gotten huge. I don’t care if nobody is following this, I’m really just doing the post for myself and if anyone wants to look they can.

So I guess Monday will be my next update. Fleck hasn’t gotten much bigger, and for being 2 months, I’m worried I might have done something wrong and stunted him. I did come back to a sick fish, who sadly died. Tough but honestly better than I expected. Also, there’s a decent size (maybe 2 week old) baby in my tank, swimming around unbothered. Lose a life gain a life Ig.

 

So I guess Monday will be my next update. Fleck hasn’t gotten much bigger, and for being 2 months, I’m worried I might have done something wrong and stunted him

I think fleck will be ok, I've been raising 5 swordtail fry since around the same day you started your babies. It's seems like such a long time for them to grow.. mine is getting bigger just slowly having more live foods in diet should speed up the growth but I don't have access to any small food they could eat so they are living on frozen and store bought foods...

 

I think fleck will be ok, I've been raising 5 swordtail fry since around the same day you started your babies. It's seems like such a long time for them to grow.. mine is getting bigger just slowly having more live foods in diet should speed up the growth but I don't have access to any small food they could eat so they are living on frozen and store bought foods...

Same with mine but it’s freeze dried instead of frozen, I’m not allowed to keep fish food in the freezer lol

Also, I said that because based on the pictures the babies that my friend took care of are twice the size of fleck and look like adult fish, however they were getting frequent meals and constant attention whereas fleck had to wait for the auto feeder to drop his food, and get food from the adults so that might be why.