Urgent! Is my platy ready?

URGENT!!! Is my platy ready?

I've read so many people saying different things...some will have a gravid spot, some wont, some will stick near the heater, some will hide in amongst plants...sounds like platies are hard to be ready for!

So I had the feeling they've been pregnant for a while now, and today...if I'm looking in the right place I believe I can see eyes? My mum had a look (none of us have bred fish before) and she agrees it looks like there are! There are quite a few although she won't stay still long enough to get any decent pictures. All I got was:

I'm so excited but worried at the same time! I've never bred fish before and it's exciting but I'm worried something will go wrong and they'll all die or something! Anyone would think it's me having a baby!

Her behaviour and everything is normal...although she seems to be at the surface quite a bit tonight. Should I wait a bit longer before seperating her from the other females or do it now? When you see her she has at least 10 black spots! And I don't want to put her in a trap for too long!

PLUS, I think it's important for me to say that I don't have any option but to put her in a breeding box at the moment and hope for the best! She can't go in a tank of her own just yet because there are still other fish in it! In the future she'll have a 25l all to herself and her fry. I got a 2 in 1 breeder but she'll be going in without the seperator to give her a bit more room.

I REALLY want to put her in now but I'll feel bad if it's too soon!

 

I think any creature that gives birth will be unpredictable and hard to read.

She doesn't look square enough or big enough to be close, I think. Adding some floating plants to the breeder box will help her feel more comfortable as well as give the fry a place to hide from her once they're born.

-Lisa

 

Ok I'll wait a bit longer then, although not sure I'm going to have her in the breeder now. Before I got your reply I tried putting her in and I can understand why so many people say it's not a good idea, she went crazy in there so I had to let her out

Not sure what to do when she's ready now, I don't want her getting stressed like that again...but I don't want her having them in the main tank either. Any idea what else I can try when she's ready?

 

certainly looks ready to pop unless you wanna keep all the fry I would just get a breeders net heres a picture of my black molly fry , I usually let the mother give birth and let some of them get eaten as ive found they are hard to even give away isually try to keep ten tho. . . . lol

 

I Got Fry!

Nina, my platy, was close when I posted about putting her in the breeder, I looked in my tank this morning and found some fry swimming around I missed the birth though, and couldn't net out many as I had to leave for college when I spotted them...managed to save 3 and have at least 2 more swimming around in the tank.

I doubt it but I hope to find some still alive when I get home...sounds unlikely as there are 6 hungry mouths in there and a filter which isn't covered by any netting Any idea what sort of netting will do? My mum mentioned puttin an old stocking over it...would that do?

 

Congrats on the fry!

Better to use brand new, never ever been washed stocking (old ones that have been washed may have soap residue on them - the residue can stay for quite a while). I use a cheap square filter sponge with an 'X' cut in it and slot in over the intake tube. It has to be tight, but not so tight that you can't get it on

You may also be suprised how many fry hide in the little nooks and crannies I have to gently whack the plants with a net to scare them out so I can catch them.

 

Thank you. I shall see about getting a new stocking then, it's probably the easiest thing for us to use at the moment.

The fry I saw kept hiding in all the tiny gaps in my piece of bogwood...was a nightmare trying to get them out and I was in such a hurry I had to leave them

 

congrats on the fry beautiful fish mine should be do anyday new too site dot know how to post