Creating a fry hideout... Advice/suggestions,

[Mrs.h2012]

Well... My Micky mouse platy is pregnant. Her gravid spot is getting darker as days go on and she is huge and her belly is getting more and more square. I have a breeding net but really don't want to put her in it. I want to atleast try and give the fry a chance to survive. My tank has fake plants, nothing live. I guess you would say its moderately planted, nothing to heavy. I went in my LFS yesterday and looked around at their plant selection, and it wasn't all that great but I was thinking maybe I could buy several plastic plants to cluster together that maybe the fry could hide out in? Would this work in providing them with a place to hide? I have a broke barrel ornament in my tank but I don't think it would be sufficient at all, the holes in it are big enough for my red wag platy to swim through and explore inside the barrel. Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[BBradbury]

Fry Sanctuary

Well... My Micky mouse platy is pregnant. Her gravid spot is getting darker as days go on and she is huge and her belly is getting more and more square. I have a breeding net but really don't want to put her in it. I want to atleast try and give the fry a chance to survive. My tank has fake plants, nothing live. I guess you would say its moderately planted, nothing to heavy. I went in my LFS yesterday and looked around at their plant selection, and it wasn't all that great but I was thinking maybe I could buy several plastic plants to cluster together that maybe the fry could hide out in? Would this work in providing them with a place to hide? I have a broke barrel ornament in my tank but I don't think it would be sufficient at all, the holes in it are big enough for my red wag platy to swim through and explore inside the barrel. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Hello Mrs....

I float Anacharis and Pennywort in my Livebearer tanks. Both grow quickly in moderate light conditions. Singapore moss is also a nice, thick plant for the fry.

I would suggest starting to feed all your fish a little more and feed a little more often. It's been my experience with Livebearers, that well fed adults show little interest in the fry, so you have a high fry survival rate. The extra food also gives your fry extra nutrients for fast growth.

B

 

[Mrs.h2012]

*UPDATE*
I went out and bought some fake hair grass and amazon sword and after a lot of work... Those little pods have got to be the most annoying thing ever to get into gravel!!... This is my little hideout area for the fry whenever she has them. I spent nearly an hour getting this setup, this better serve its purpose lol! I do have another pack of the hair grass if anyone thinks I need to make this area bigger or thicker, I just used what I thought would be enough and I think I may have over bought plants not knowing how much I would need, but I will take what I didn't use back to the store.

 

[tamtam]

I would recommend getting something to float on the top too where they can be fed easier, the more cover the better really. Platy like other live-bearer can drop a rather large number of fry

 

[Mrs.h2012]

So I re-did my fry hide out and kinda re-arranged my tank... Again lol. Those little pods that the hair grass and amazon swords came in were linked together; so I did a mixture of small pods and hooked a lot of them of ether to make a coil type thing so it would float. A few of my plants were really to tall for my tank and after looking at them
I figured out I could take parts off to shorten them, so I did that and added the parts I took off to the floating part I help things hang down to kinda help it stay above fry hide out spot. I'm actually really glad I bough the hair grass and amazon sword pods, I'm really liking how they look I think I like my tank better now than I did before!

 

[emerald76]

Get a small cave with a small opening, like this one-
http://m.petsmart.com/mt/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3412985
Get lots of bushy, thick plants. Completely hide the cave with the plants very tightly packed together. Stick a few smaller plants by the entrance. Even stick one inside the cave. That should protect them.

 

[emerald76]

Get a small cave with a small opening, like this one-
http://m.petsmart.com/mt/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3412985
Get lots of bushy, thick plants. Completely hide the cave with the plants very tightly packed together. Stick a few smaller plants by the entrance. Even stick one inside the cave. That should protect them.

Oops, completely missed the above post. Looks good!!

 

[Mrs.h2012]

I'm hoping this will be sufficient, my platy's now are having quite a good time swimming through the dangling parts of the 'fry hide out' but so far they haven't even messed with getting their noses down in the grass or even tried I get inside my coil of floating plants... Hoping it stays that way! And another question, do platy's prefer to give birth in a more secluded place of the tank or does it just vary by fish? The Mickey mouse is showing a lot of interest in the fry hide out spot already.

 

[azmodan]

Java moss and frogbit are both easy, lowlight plants that are great for fry. Can't beat real plants!

 

[bud29]

I think it can vary from fish to fish but I believe that they generally claim a territory and give birth there.

The fry hideout looks good. I went to a lfs once and in the lyretail molly tank I saw one little baby lyretail swimming around. I watched it for a while (as I had never seen fry before) And then about a dozen more streamed out of this really big, dense plant. One full grown fish started chasing them, they just went back into the plant and they were fine. I hope your hideout works well too!

 

[Mrs.h2012]

I'm hoping it works out too! I only have a 10g so I definitely couldn't keep them all if a good many survive, I would like to keep maybe one or two, a few at the most. Maybe my LFS will take them, if not maybe nature will take its course.

 

[bud29]

Yeah, I have heard that fry are very cute, especially when they get around the 1/2-3/4 inch mark where they don't have to constantly hide.

 

[tamtam]

it varies by fish on how they birth. Usually your fish will start acting different. Hiding more, wanting privacy and it's usually a good sign babies are on the way.

I had a pregnant platy I got from the pet store and she was an odd one it seems. She acted a bit strange a day or so before but the day she started dropping fry she was all over the place. I will be investing in a breeder box next time until I'm able to plant my tank with live plants.

She did most of her birthing when we weren't home and most were eaten. I was watching her once swim right in the open and drop a fry and it was eaten before it got to shelter.

 

[Mrs.h2012]

That's interesting.. My Micky mouse has been a lot more active than normal lately, especially very very active yesterday. I'm so anxious for her to have we babies!

 

[tamtam]

That's interesting.. My Micky mouse has been a lot more active than normal lately, especially very very active yesterday. I'm so anxious for her to have we babies!

lol, it can take a little while I remember being so sure she was preggers for a few weeks and after waiting and waiting and posting on here and being told that people didn't think she was preggo I gave up thinking she was just chunky. Then low and behold I was doing my partial water change before going out for the day and noticed something swimming in the gravel vac! Thats when I realized she was birthing.

She really didn't change much though. She's always been the most active and lively fish in the tank. The night before she was hanging out in a corner on the bottom but lights were off, it was middle of the night and about 3 other fish were with her so I thought nothing of it.

 

[Mrs.h2012]

I keep re-doing my fry hide out area nearly every time I do a PWC. Today when I re-did it I added more to the floating plant coil I put together to make it more dense. Both of my platy's are very interested in it and swimming through the plants hanging down... And after seeing them do this makes me think I haven't provided enough cover :/ I'm wondering if I should take my air stone out from under my broken barrel and put a small plant and some of the little grass pods inside the barrel and somehow maybe put a bigger plant or two inside the barrel and run the longer stems up through the holes to keep the platy's from swimming inside. This is how the hide out looks now. First picture is the entire hide out, second is of the bottom part and third is of the floating coil part.

 

[Mrs.h2012]

And I re-did it again lol. I put a few grass pods under where the barrel is now along with 2 bigger plants that I ran the stems through the holes in the barrel so the platies can't swim through it anymore. Which do you all think will be better for the fry? This layout or my previous one? I tried to get pictures of how I have the stems coming through the holes in the barrel, there not that great but the best I could get.

 

[FishFanatic88]

And I re-did it again lol. I put a few grass pods under where the barrel is now along with 2 bigger plants that I ran the stems through the holes in the barrel so the platies can't swim through it anymore. Which do you all think will be better for the fry? This layout or my previous one? I tried to get pictures of how I have the stems coming through the holes in the barrel, there not that great but the best I could get.

i think this one is much better.

 

[Mrs.h2012]

Re-did the hide out more like the first one I had created. I spotted a fry last night all for about 30 seconds and never saw it again... Until earlier when I was doing my daily WC and saw it floating around in the tank dead Micky mouse platy is still very very pregnant, so hopefully the fry she hasn't given birth too will have a chance to survive!

 

[jayhawks12279]

Any fry yet? I'm captivated. LOL