I had a male swordtail in with some female platys. I knew interbreeding was going to be a potential problem, so I gave the swordtail back to the LFS a couple weeks back. But apparently I was too late, because, imagine my surprise, when I saw a little fry in my tank last night! I went to bed and went to a 4th of July party today, assuming the fry would just get eaten. But today, it's still alive! And she (I think it's a she - it's kinda hard to ID the anal fin, since he/she is so small). I don't have any kind of breeding tank...what's my best course of action? Just hope she survives? She seems savvy enough to hide in the back where no one will bother her. I have a dwarf gourami in the tank, as well as a bunch of ghost shrimp, so it seems she might get eaten. Is this a lost cause? I don't mind having a new fish in the tank, and I have room for it, but I'm stressed out about her survival chances.
When they're little they all start out looking female. Every one of my 2+ month old platy fry still appear female. I would just leave her in there, the adults might not eat her. If she's survived this long she's got a pretty good chance, there may even be other survivors you just haven't seen yet. Some kind of floating plants to hide in will greatly increase her chance of survival. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Fish Lore Aquarium Fish Forum mobile app
If there are lots of places for the fry to hide then IMO the fry's survival rate should be high because they can hide from any possible predators.
I'd personally let nature take it's course. If it gets eaten, it gets eaten, and if it survives, it survives. Yeah, fry start out looking like females.....
