oh-oh fry!!!

I wasn't planning on them having babies, but I looked this evening, shifted the heater that seems to have moved and out come 3 fry. I don't know which platy they are from or how many more I will get. I didn't notice any yesterday when I did my water change. What is the average? And what can I do? I am not prepared for babies, I have no room for another tank, no fry food, no divider, no breeder box. Would I be really bad to let them try to make it on their own? I'm thinking the platy I suspect that is male will have to be returned

 

there is on avergae about 100 fry but any other fish in the tank will eat them u will get babies all the time with platies because they are a live bearer and will multiply like rabbits

Peace Out Callum!

 

If you don't want the fry try offering them to your lfs for store credit. But if you notice them they sell breeder nets, where you catch the babies and the net keeps the parents away from them. Make sure to feed them VERY finely ground flake both veggie and regular flake. (livebearers need vegetation in their diet, a very compatent friend of ours feeds her livebearers veggie in the morning and something else in the evening, to ensure proper veggie in diet) If you want to keep/sale them leaving them in the tank without a breeder net or some such would be a bad idea. The adult fish will begin eatting them, it is very unlikely that any would survive to be large enough to be safe from the adults, depending on tank size, number of fish in tank, amount of dense plant cover, caves, rocks, driftwood holes, etc.

 

congrats on finding new fry.. our platy only averaged about 20 per drop, but wasn't the healthiest and only 4 of her fry survived.. and I think usually a platy would have more. there could be more hiding in the tank, but you'd be amazed at how good they can hide. when we went 'fry hunting' we took the other fish out, then the decor, then the substrata (flat glass marbles for us) in order to find all of them.

 

no sign of anything this am, not sure if what was there was eaten or hiding really good I have a lot of fake plants and a log and a bridge for hiding. but whomever had the babies may not be done yet I guess, reading thru it takes a while for them all to come out, and the one I suspect it is is quite large. and I may only saw 3 or 2 last night, it was after lights out and difficult to see.

 

not even close to 100 on average. Mine had 70 and heard that was extremely high, most people seem to have 10-25 per dropping. The fry won't survive in that tank too many predators. The scavengers will most likely get to them first on bottom of rocks.

 

Pet stores don't usually take them until are 1 inch long; but maybe different in different places; but stores won't generally give credit for fry because they'll end up fish food in ones of their tanks.