Platy ready to be moved to breeding tank?

[ltilden]

Hi! Okay so I am very new at this so sorry if I seem uninformed or naive or whatever. So basically I bought two platys a couple of months ago, and just recently I noticed that the silver mickey mouse one was chasing around the yellow one. The next day I looked at my yellow one and noticed that she had large red spots on her belly and her belly was pretty big (I have no idea why I didnt notice it ealier!!) Im like 99% sure she's pregnant, but what I'm not sure of is when she should be moved into the floating breeding tank. I put her in there because from what I have read from other sites/forums I think she may be ready to go soon (and I was able to get a better picture of her, which I attached to this post!!) Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

I have gone through this once before, with my two jewel cichilids, but unfortunately the babies were hatched right around the time I was moving out of my dorm, and the move didnt go very well. The male ended up killing the mother and all the babies when I finally got them home

Im hoping this time to have better results!

 

[arrynyo]

if you have a male and female platy/molly 100% she will be preggo. from the looks of her though i wouldnt say shes ready to drop just yet. when mine gets ready she looks like she is about to explode then i move her and within an hour or so i get fry. but each fish is different though so i would keep a close eye on her and try not to move her too much. she definately is preggo though. if her rear end ever starts to get a boxy shape though, thats when its baby time move her as carefully as possible and and make sure you eatch her because she will eat the babies as they come out (ive seen it with my own eyes) but youll have fry really soon trust me

 

[Crepe]

Don't use those breeder traps. they are more harm than good. The small space adds to the already stressful situation of birth. Imagine if a pregnant human was shoved into a closet to give birth. Not fun for anyone. If you have a larger breeder net, at least a foot across diagonally use that. you could also just buy a very large fine mesh net from the sports store and toss a rock in it to weigh it down and bam. Giant breeder net.

 

[arrynyo]

well i do use a breeder trap every once in a while and i havent had any problems at all. she dosent mind it at all and as soon as i put her in there she starts dropping babies. but every fish is different though some might not care some might freak out but i do agree with crepe about the net its way less stressful and you have more room to work with