Emergency platy with eggs

[Lesley McNeill]

My platy had fry in February. Tonight I looked at her and she had a very large clump of eggs hanging from underneath her. I caught her and gently took some off her but there is still a lot and I can't get a good look at her. She is quite a jumpy fish. What do I do with her? This is just after midnight now in Scotland. Her mate would be a swordtail. The eggs looked like they were empty, nothing was formed inside them. she is a big fish and didn't look like she was pregnant.

Thanks in advance.

Have now added pictures. She seems out of sorts. Pretty much ignoring me when usually she would shoot away.

 

[augustjd123]

Plates don't lay eggs so I imagine its just some sort of white colored waste.


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[Lesley McNeill]

I know that platys are live bearers but at some point there must be eggs internally. It was definitely eggs. Sadly she was gone this morning. Appeared that she had a rupture around her vent and the eggs were in a large clump. They were small round, in a large clump. Would suggest from reading elsewhere that she had a miscarriage.
My husband will be most upset now.

Would appreciate it if someone could explain to me what has happened.

 

[Lesley McNeill]

Another picture that didn't add the first time.

 

[Lesley McNeill]

Trying with pic again.

 

[Mattyfelts]

couldnt really be eggs, and the fact that she passed is odd. maybe a mis-identified external parasite, infection, etc.

 

[Lesley McNeill]

Honest I would bet my life on the fact that it was eggs. They were clear round, in a clump and looked like fish eggs. She was well and eating just before it. What I took off her, very gently, couldn't have looked more like eggs. Do they not store the eggs in their body, so couldn't she have produced a large amount of eggs that were never fertilised and were just to much for her. Her male swordtail was always trying his best with her.

 

[kdklovesfish]

I know I'm late on this one but I thought you might appreciate an answer and to let you know it wasn't you. I had this happen with my older live bearer females. I have tried removing the "eggs" (yep I agree they look and feel like eggs) and I have left them on. I have moved the fish to my qt tank so she can be left alone. I've tried everything I can think of. Nothing works. Every time I see this the fish is dead within hours. My thought process is perhaps the female gets pregnant but not all of her eggs get fertilized so when the fry try to come out they push the eggs out and the eggs get stuck. I think this because I have had this happen with the mother but still find one or two live fry. Completed child birth kills other animals that carry, so it makes since it could kill live bearers too.


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[Lesley McNeill]

Thanks

Thank you for your reply.
It makes sense to me.
I try very hard to look after my fish and have had a few failures but I have taken advice from people and got it steadied. She was my first death for a while, apart from a male that was bullied from his female, and it wasn't nice. I like to look for answers to see if there is anything I can do to prevent or deal with should it happen again.

I am fond of any pets I have and give them the same level of care. I even took my budgies camping as I rather than farm them out. Boy that confused people.

 

[kdklovesfish]

Not me. We have a conure parrot that goes on trips too. All of our pets are important!!

Sometimes it seems like people don't care about platys or any of the cheap fish. Like they are replaceable. Well, yeah I can go buy another platy but it's not the same platy. Just because they are $2 doesn't make me love them less.

The only thing I have found that helps with the female dying while giving birth problem is to have more females per males. I have seen 2 females per male, but I like to keep it at 3 or 4 per male. I have no idea why this works since the male will keep all the females pregnant. However, I haven't had hardly any of the females die since I increased the amount of females. The only problem I have with this is I now constantly have have fry. I love it but someday will run out of room for.


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