Platy Prego?

[Kimbie]

Hi,

My platy might be pregnant. We just noticed her belly is a lot bigger than the other females. I have a 5 gallon Hospital Tank cycled on standby. When should I move her and how long until fry? How long until she is moved away from fry?

 

[Fishobsessed7]

She's preggo but she's still a bit off


Fishobsessed7

 

[AdamsAquarium]

Her belly will get significantly larger and eventually you will see a white dot between her fins, that is when she is ready and will be a day or 2 away. their normal cycle of pregnancy is averaged around 28 days. She looks to be a little over a week away. Maybe closer to 2 weeks.

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[AdamsAquarium]

How could I forgot the "squaring off" of the belly! That's another good incicator. You can Google pictures of that

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[Noviceafter2yea]

Hi,

My platy might be pregnant. We just noticed her belly is a lot bigger than the other females. I have a 5 gallon Hospital Tank cycled on standby. When should I move her and how long until fry? How long until she is moved away from fry?

My platys (one now deceased) have been pregnant many times. The first time was a complete surprise to me. I noticed she was darting around the aquarium and moving her body stiffly in a sort of back and forth motion. She seemed as though she was constipated. A couple of days prior to that, she was hanging out by herself in a vertical position.

I got worried and quickly moved her to my QT thinking I needed to treat her for bloat or something. I guess the move stressed her because all of a sudden I saw what looked like a poop starting and then several quick spurts of a pinkish hue. Upon closer look, I saw she was giving birth. I also knew she'd eat her babies if they weren't separated so I literally went fishing and removed all the fry and put in a separate container. I was lucky because a girl that works at my lfs was willing to take all 20 for her own tank.

Since then, I've learned to recognize the signs in my own fish. I didn't want to be on hyper alert and fishing again, so I got a little plastic breeder thing to put in the tank where you put the mom and under it are a bunch of small slats for the fry to slip through - thus separating the mom from the babies.

A lot of people don't like breeding tanks or nets, I have found it helpful. I have tried giving the fry away, but no one wants any. Currently they are in my 5 gallon QT until I figure out what to do and at the same time I cycled a 14 gallon in case I can't do anything. It is really important to cover the filter intake valve with nylon wherever you store the fish, otherwise they get sucked in.

Hope this helps a little.