Platy has just given birth

[anttna]

Yeah my Hi-Fin platy has given birth there doesnt seem to be many fry, ive only seen 4 indivisuals all together. Perhaps others have been eaten :? shame but not equiped to rear them. This is my first tank ive only had it for 3 months perhaps ill go get a small 4 gallon tank to put them in, if i can find them. There hard to spot and damn fast from what i can tell.

 

[PlatyLady]

Congratulations!!!

She really might have only had 4 fry. It's not unheard of. Also, if some of them have been eaten, it's sort of a blessing in disguise - you will continue to need more and bigger tanks if all your fry survived! On the other hand, if you want them to live, make sure you have lots of hiding spots.

This morning I was surprised by finding a little fry who lives under a rock. I don't know if he's a platy or a guppy though. LOL He's kind of weird looking, funny shaped, odd markings. I've only known him for a few hours, and I've already named him Lil Monster.

Anyway, yeah, they're fast and sometimes hard to spot. Makes for hours of fun in front of the fish tank though!

 

[brendan]

That's awesome that she had babies. What I find works well for raising fry is one of those floating birthing traps, they're like $5 from Walmart and that way you can have them in the same tank as all your other fish.

 

[myriam]

Congrats! I always love to hear about new fry Enjoy them! But I also concur with PlatyLady...unless you plan on bigger and more tanks, having them all survive would be hard to keep up with. It seems like a few survive, and that's probably good enough.

 

[Jazz]

how big are they when they're born? and how many do they usually have in a... um, a litter?

 

[platylover]

Congrats on the new additions! Fry are so fun to watch, when you can find them. I just wanted to add onto what Brendan said about the floating breeding traps. They will slow the growth of the fry a bit so it will take longer to get the fry to the size that they won't be getting eaten. I used the breeder traps for a long time until I did an experiment. I kept 3 fry in the trap and put 3 fry in the main tank, made sure that there were plenty of hiding places in the main tank, and within about a month's time, the fry in the main tank were about twice the size of the ones in the breeder trap.

Platy fry are very small when they are first born. I'm guessing about 1/8 inch at the most. Platies can have anywhere from 10- 40 fry, maybe even more. A lot will depend on the size of the female and her age. The older they get, the more they seem to have at one time.

Again, conrats on the fry and I hope you get as much enjoyment out of them as I have.

 

[tkos]

My first batch of platy fry was 11 individuals that I spotted, 4 remain. The next batch was a single fry (that has since disappeared).