breeding and feeding

[sarahh]

alrighty then.

So a couple of my live bearers in the community tank (120) have shown no signs of labor, everyone has been eating fine and chasing each other around the tank.

But i did notice some fry in there the other day.. molly or platy or both.

I also have cherry barbs who's eggs disappear.

Now, unfortunately, they are all gone and the fish are getting FAT. like uber obese. I am trying to be vigilant, and have gotten hold of most of the moms before the fry arrive, but what do i do with these fish now? Am i missing more mommies than i thought?

not all of them are overweight, but should i hold back food for a few days or something?
thanks again guys

 

[mfdrookie516]

what are you trying to do? i never took my females out when they were pregnant, i just left them in there. I've had several fry just appear, hide in the mass of plants until big enough to not be eaten, then grow up to make or have babies of their own. I've even had about 20 danio fry show up. Are you wanting fry or not?

 

[sarahh]

i don't particularly want the fry, but i hate for them to be hunted like that. I already have about 8 fry in the QT tank from the walmart fish.
And i am getting worried about the size of the platies. they're so fat!!

 

[Viper]

Dont go by what you see in fish stores as a judge for how your platies should look. My mollies were always much larger and heftier than ones that I see in the stores. Its a cruel world sometimes, but it is going to be survival of the fittest when it comes to fry. My first batch of fry I got from my mollies totaled 24, only 3 of them survived (mainly because of my inexperience with fry). The next batch I was only able to capture 8 of them, they all survived. Then the next batch only 2 were found both of which survived by hiding amongst my tangled mess of java moss.

So I guess what Im saying is that you cant watch your tank all day (although we wish we could) so you may not be around for the fry to be born. The fish arent going to wait for us to be in the room for them to give birth. If you happen to see fry, grab them before the other fish can. Removing the mothers can stress them out more than they already are and could have adverse effects on the birth.

 

[mfdrookie516]

is the tank planted? if its got lots of hiding spots in it for the fry, they'll be fine. I had a bad experience with a breeder trap so i just left them in the tank to fend for themselves like they do in nature from that point on.

 

[sarahh]

thanks viper.. i did move ne mom to a breeding net, and she got all depressed about it, and seemed like she wasn't going to birth just to spite me lol

i think now it's a numbers game.. the fry have slim to nil chance of running the gauntlet with 34 adult fish to keep them on their toes. I try by putting low rocks and artificial grass, bt i still feel sorry for them. BTW, my husband said the same thing.. Survival of the fittest..

 

[sarahh]

mfd, it has LOTS of artificial plants, some low lying coral rock (we have low ph issues) and 2 log decorations and i also put some artificial grass matting yesterday..

 

[Viper]

thanks viper.. i did move ne mom to a breeding net, and she got all depressed about it, and seemed like she wasn't going to birth just to spite me lol

i think now it's a numbers game.. the fry have slim to nil chance of running the gauntlet with 34 adult fish to keep them on their toes. I try by putting low rocks and artificial grass, bt i still feel sorry for them. BTW, my husband said the same thing.. Survival of the fittest..

If you have lots of places for them to hide where only they can squeeze into, hopefully they should be able to hold their own. Being that they are platies, they should be able to survive by eating the algae and any other crap that is found on the bottom and any pieces of food that happen to land/float near their hiding places.

 

[bettamax]

from my experience if you can get a breeder box and put the fry in there when they are born and give them some hikari and get some medicine in case they get sick and then they will be fine as long as you don't over or under feed them and keep the water at a steady temperature and clean. though i wouldn't leave them to fend for them self unless you have a sponge filter so they don't get sucked up but other then that every thing depends on the babies survival instincts.