Mickey Mouse Platy Fry help (first time)

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cultofpunk

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 2, 2015
Messages
11
Location
Upstate New York
I'm really new to the forum and new to taking care of fish fry. I have researched upon researched and I can't seem to find a direct answer so I decided to join and ask for help.

I had a beautiful gold Mickey Mouse platy (Brie) ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1422894798.256946.jpg and I discovered in November that she had a really big belly and that's when I went oh crap lol the very next day November 15th i scrambled to get a breeder box since I read it was best to do that. And so I got her in there and she went on later that evening to give birth to about 37 fry! Since I was so inexperienced with this and with more research, people have said to leave the momma in there for 24 hours since she could give birth for as long as that. I was at work that day so I texted my sister and my dad for as many updates as possible. Turns out some of the babies were swimming up the trap and I guess the momma got to them so we only had about 16 left. ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1422895240.056164.jpg

The momma went on to get pregnant again and we might have put her in the breeder box too early because she went on to give birth to over 40 undeveloped fry and eventually died that day. I felt really guilty about that.

So fast forward to a few weeks, I was feeding them crushed tropical flakes twice a day and occasionally brine shrimp and they seemed pretty happy with that but I became a bit concerned when I read that they were supposed to start gaining color at about 4-6 weeks of age. We moved them to a separate 1 gallon tank and over those few weeks, we have only 3 left. I don't know what I'm doing wrong so that's why I'm turning to you guys.

They do have a tiny bit of color and I see a black dot on 2 of the 3 of their tails but I'm sure they are supposed to be bigger for 11 weeks old. I'm feeding them first bites fry food that I started them on about 2-3 weeks ago. ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1422895746.813049.jpg I was hearing back and fourth that keeping them in a small tank would cause them to grow slower and I heard that it was just a myth and I don't know what to believe honestly. So I had my dad transfer them back into the main tank in a bigger breeder box that I had purchased 4 days ago.

Here's a pic of one of the three babies: ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1422896151.192580.jpg

I would say they are about maybe less than half an inch. But it's just I'm really concerted because I've seen platy fry that are huge at only 4 weeks old.

So sorry about the essay but My question to you guys is, what in the world am I doing wrong? What can I do to make them grow? Or am I doing everything in supposed to?

Oh I guess I forgot to mention that my main tank is 60g. It's just that the 3 fry are in a breeder box within that tank now.

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Try and give them Java moss to hide in and nible on in a seperate tank. The first and second batches just sometimes don't go well. Just keep at it and you'll get the hang of it



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Your Platys

Hello cult...

Livebearing fish, like Platys need a larger tank. 30 gallons is the minimum. I keep my Red Wag and Sunset Platys in a minimum 45 gallon tank. So, there's room to swim and avoid the adults. You need to heavily plant it with Hornwort and Anacharis. This provides security for both the female and the fry.

You don't need to move any fish if the tank is well planted. Moving fish can cause injury to the female and to the unborn fry. Feed all the fish a little more and more often. Well fed adult fish show little or no interest in the fry.

Clean water is critical to the survival of the fry. Work up to the point you're changing half the water in the tank every few days. A week should be the longest between water changes. Waste can build up in the water and stress the fish. Removing it before it builds up is the key to a healthy tank.

I dose a little standard aquarium salt in all my tanks. Livebearers can use a bit more than the others. A healthy teaspoon or a bit more for every 5 gallons of new, treated tap water is enough.

B
 
Hello cult...

Livebearing fish, like Platys need a larger tank. 30 gallons is the minimum. I keep my Red Wag and Sunset Platys in a minimum 45 gallon tank. So, there's room to swim and avoid the adults. You need to heavily plant it with Hornwort and Anacharis. This provides security for both the female and the fry.

You don't need to move any fish if the tank is well planted. Moving fish can cause injury to the female and to the unborn fry. Feed all the fish a little more and more often. Well fed adult fish show little or no interest in the fry.

Clean water is critical to the survival of the fry. Work up to the point you're changing half the water in the tank every few days. A week should be the longest between water changes. Waste can build up in the water and stress the fish. Removing it before it builds up is the key to a healthy tank.

I dose a little standard aquarium salt in all my tanks. Livebearers can use a bit more than the others. A healthy teaspoon or a bit more for every 5 gallons of new, treated tap water is enough.

B


I totally forgot to mention that the tank they are in now is 60g. They are just in the breeder box within that tank. I'm not sure if there are actually enough plants in my tank. ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1422920030.453563.jpg should I put more in or would that be good?


60g tank
16 Male fancy and imported guppies: Dean, Seth, Logan, Daryl, Glenn, Sherbert, Fire, Sunset, Utchi, Cesaro, Franco, and Jesse (fancy guppies) Crowley, Captain and Falcon (imported guppies)
1 dwarf gourami
4 neon tetras
1 long tailed zebra fish
1 black Molly
1 while Molly
2 gold Micky Mouse Platies (1 male one female)
1 male red Mickey Mouse platy
1 creamsicle platy
3 Mickey Mouse platy fry (color and genders tbd) born November 15th 2014
A few other variety of tropical fish
SIP guppies Sky, Walter, Roman, Leakee, Bucky, Hoji and Akira. And Golden Mickey Mouse platy Brie, mother of over 70 fry.
 
That tank size sounded great until the list of current residents. Livebearers like most fish tend to eat the fry or eggs for egg layers. With that many assassins around the fry would have a hard time surviving unless you have a planted jungle.


If you really want to raise some fry here is what you do. First get a brooder tank, a 10gal will for a few weeks as long as you do 2-3 20% water changes per week. I'd get a 15L-20L if it were me. You will need to set this up and cycle it. Use an air driven sponge filter for 60-100gal tank, they are $15 or less. Put these items in the tank: Water, heater, sponge filter, fish. You can use a piece of plastic tube from Lowes or Home Depot to siphon off the gunk on the bottom. Buy some brine shrimp eggs, shrimp net and a bag of solar salt-rock salt and hatch them in a jar with an air line. Feed the fry only freshly hatched brine shrimp for the first week. After the first week feed crushed flake food once daily and brine shrimp as many more times as you can. Within 4 weeks you should be able to feed a small amount of flake food wait five minutes and then feed brine shrimp. If you feed at least twice daily before work and after and follow this schedule your fry will be 4-5 times larger than if you just fed crushed flake food. You should be able to pick the fish you want to keep or throw them all in the tank at 4 weeks. This entire set up will cost $50, but you can just reproduce your own livestock for some time.
 
Hi this has happened
To me before when I ran out of first bites and had to use tropical flakes! ? my fish stopped growing and then when I bought more first bites they started growing again! Keep feeding first bites!


Time spent with cats is never wasted
 
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