Platy about to birth?

Hello! Never did this before. This platy has been in my care for 3 weeks. She has looked like she was rest I burst all that time. Today she looked larger and was being restless and hiding as she was being surrounded by the other fish. Never happened before. I assume she was or is about to birth so pulled out my breeder box and put her in there. Gave her some food to calm her. Think this is it? I'm not exactly sure what the defining detail is that tells me but it seemed like it so I put her in there to be safe.

 

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Yes it is pregnant.Look at her gravid spot. More the darker, sooner will be the birth.
You can see the that its belly will turn into a box shaped in a few days.
But make sure not to stress them as they will abort the fry.

 

Yes I know she's pregnant I'm just not sure if she's about to birth the fry. She's been acting different today and what I read online says it's time. I moved her to the box and I turned out the lights. Covered the section where the box is. Just didn't want to do it if it's not time

 

Now it's not the time.When it's belly will turn into box shaped then in a few hours it will give birth.

In a day it will turn into a box shaped.

 

So I should take her out of there or leave her in? Wouldn't taking her out cause her more stress now? Thanks in advance

I should add it's a little boxed now, and she has a small white protrusion where she would give birth. She is not constipated. Breathing rapidly but calm. This morning she was swimming erratically and chasing other fish them went to hide in a cave. That's when I moved her






Maybe this isn't boxed but it looks it to me. Hard to get a picture sorry




Gravid spot almost black now

 

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Maybe this isn't boxed but it looks it to me. Hard to get a picture sorry

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Gravid spot almost black now

Any time it can give birth. So look after her timely.

 

At this point I would leave her be in the box. Any chance you could put a small plant in with her? It would give the fry a place to hide and might make her feel more secure. Alison

 

I have her in the box with a couple floating plants and a towel over that section to keep it a bit darker. She released one fry that I found in the tank but she's huge and still boxed - more than before so I don't think that's it. Will leave her be for a day or two then and see what happens. Thanks!

 

I have her in the box with a couple floating plants and a towel over that section to keep it a bit darker. She released one fry that I found in the tank but she's huge and still boxed - more than before so I don't think that's it. Will leave her be for a day or two then and see what happens. Thanks!

Great job!
She will release all the fries in the next few hours.
According to me or maybe it will give approximately 40 fries.

 

This is her right now- hard to tell but maybe you can confirm the box?

 

This is her right now- hard to tell but maybe you can confirm the box? View attachment 195629
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Yes, it is a boxy shaped. At midnight they all gives birth to tiny fries.
So cover it with a black towel to pop out more fries.

 

Will do!! Thank you for your help! I'm excited, I have one baby in there now and I love him

 

I don't want to be this way, I really don't, but here's what I've decided after going through this exact thing.

I will never, ever put a mama-to-be in a box again. It stresses them out so much during a time when they're already stressed. They need to feel safe when they're under that much stress, and I've seen them go nuts trying to get out of that clear box.

Besides - what may seem cute now can turn into a nightmare if you're not really set up for it. They multiply like crazy and you soon end up with various sizes of little jerks. I have a heavily planted tank with mostly platies and swordtails, 6 cory cats, two molly, two angel fish, and one male betta. After ripping my entire tank apart last weekend to get the little buggers out to take to my LFS, I prefer to let nature take the natural course - those who survive will keep the population going. It sounds cruel and I cringed at the thought of it, but it's so much better if a select few make it to adulthood instead of 80-100 fighting for resources. I used a 29 gallon tank for a birthing and growout tank and the number in a tank that large vs. the handful in my 60 gallon tank showed some interesting observations - the ones in the bigger tank grew faster and seemed much more peaceful (as peaceful as a little jerk juvenile platy can be, anyway.) The ones in the smaller tank fought over food (no matter how you fed them,) grew much more slowly, and just had a bad personality vibe coming off of it.

Sorry, I just saw the girl in the box and cringed. It works, it's just something I won't do to mine anymore. Again, these are just my experiences. I'm not knocking anyone's methods, or saying mine are better...just offering a perspective.

 

I appreciate it. I wasn't planning on breeding them or doing this but she came home pregnant lf course and I wanted a couple of more females. My local pet shop always has ich so I though if I kept a couple of these batch, then I could get rid of any males and unwanted and then let nature take its course on any further fry batches.

I agree, I feel bad for her in there. I've done my best to keep her happy and she doesn't seem stressed. My decision was based on my male chasing her constantly and pecking at her. Otherwise I would have left her alone. She seemed stressed by him so if for no other reason, she's out of his reach in there.

I should say, the breeder box is surrounded by plants and in direct flow of one of the filters. She seems to just float under and near the floating plants and where I have my towel hung. Lights are off on the tank and she hasn't been fighting to get out. If she were I would let her out.
Because of the male being relentless in his pursuit and pecking of her last day I put her in.

 

It sounds like her box is in a good spot. I tried to keep my breeding net (snails) in a quiet, out of the way, low stress corner too. The LFS...ugh. I try not to buy anything alive from them. "Puppy mills" have an aquatic equal, that's for sure. Unfortunately, a rescue can bring a really bad situation home

That male (while being a not so nice guy) is doing what he's supposed to. I was ready to take mine out permanently until I found out that he's TRYING to stress her to get her to not carry to full term. As distasteful as it is, that's what they do

Good luck with your babies - they're cute for a little bit

 

I figured that's what the male was doing- I just wanted the one batch and then after that whatever happens to come in the way of fry will survive or not in the main tank.

I've done well for the most part on my fish but platy always seem to be sickly there.

 

How are the fries ?

 

When I went to bed only one still. I'll check again in the morning. If there's nothing, I may let her out.

 

When I went to bed only one still. I'll check again in the morning. If there's nothing, I may let her out.

It's right.

 

Woke up and have somewhere between 13-17 fry! Mama doing well, fed her some garlic pellets and blood worms and released her. She seems ok, will monitor her.
Removed section plate in breeder box, added a few more plants in there and used a dropper to put some ground flake and garlic pellets in for the fry.
Anything else I should do? I'll trickle in clean water later tonight

 

Woke up and have somewhere between 13-17 fry! Mama doing well, fed her some garlic pellets and blood worms and released her. She seems ok, will monitor her.
Removed section plate in breeder box, added a few more plants in there and used a dropper to put some ground flake and garlic pellets in for the fry.
Anything else I should do? I'll trickle in clean water later tonight

Congratulations !
You have done the right thing by feeding the mother and the fries.But make sure you have to feed the fries crushed flakes and chopped out blood worms as they are highly proteinecious. Also you should keep the water clean.

 

That's awesome - ~15 fry are absolutely fun while easy (easier?) to handle. Feed them throughout the day - their little fish bellies can't hold much, but they need constant nourishment to grow.

 

Thanks! I have done that. So far so good!