jennandjuicetm
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- May 29, 2014
- Messages
- 204
A week ago today I got 5 play babies from a LFS. They were $0.25 each so I couldn't resist! They were merely 3/4" long and have grown now to about an inch or so. I counted 4 females and 1 male. I wanted them so bad because they weren't your average platy. Three are speckled like dalmatian mollys but under the speckles are a ray of colors, one of the dalmatians is the male. The other two females sort of have a blue iridescence to them. They are currently in quarantine for at least another week, then they will be joining a planted community consisting of hasbrosus cories, ADFs, a betta, threadfin rainbows, a baby bristle noes, and one killifish. The community will reside in a 20 gallon until I have a chance to reseal this 55, which is.
This morning I woke up to exciting news! The most gravid platy has squared off! According to my research it should take about 2-5 days from today for her to give birth. Being that she's very young, the amount of fry will probably be small. I'd like to try and hand raise them either way. Luckily, my live food cultures of banana worms, microworms, and viegar eels arrived yesterday so hopefully the worms will be ready to harvest by the time the fry make an appearance. I also have live blackworms that I'm trying to culture and frozen brine shrimp and blood worms. I can't decide which method to use for keeping the fry separated but I do have an extra 2 gallon bowl that I have half filled. I have a breeder trap with slits in the sides so I may float the gravid female in that until she gives birth. Right this second she's floating in a bag due to my indecisiveness on what to do haha. Any suggestions are welcome. When they move in to the planted tank I will allow the fry to be raised in there but for now I only have plastic plants that don't really allow for much cover. For this go-round I'd like to try to hand rear them.
Big Momma:
Another female and the male, he is the dalmatian one:
Third female, the fourth in the background. The fourth is very similar to the third. (apparently female three poops while eating!
):
This morning I woke up to exciting news! The most gravid platy has squared off! According to my research it should take about 2-5 days from today for her to give birth. Being that she's very young, the amount of fry will probably be small. I'd like to try and hand raise them either way. Luckily, my live food cultures of banana worms, microworms, and viegar eels arrived yesterday so hopefully the worms will be ready to harvest by the time the fry make an appearance. I also have live blackworms that I'm trying to culture and frozen brine shrimp and blood worms. I can't decide which method to use for keeping the fry separated but I do have an extra 2 gallon bowl that I have half filled. I have a breeder trap with slits in the sides so I may float the gravid female in that until she gives birth. Right this second she's floating in a bag due to my indecisiveness on what to do haha. Any suggestions are welcome. When they move in to the planted tank I will allow the fry to be raised in there but for now I only have plastic plants that don't really allow for much cover. For this go-round I'd like to try to hand rear them.
Big Momma:
Another female and the male, he is the dalmatian one:
Third female, the fourth in the background. The fourth is very similar to the third. (apparently female three poops while eating!
):
