Pregnant Platy help

[mrsodell]

Hi all. We purchased some new platy around 7-8 weeks ago and about 2 weeks ago I noticed that my female was getting bigger and had tiny black dots in the back of her tummy.
This evening I've noticed that she's being cornered by 4 of my male platys which is making her hide.
She's eating fine when fed.
Wondered if there were any signs to look out for when labour is imminent.
We weren't really bothered about breeding our fish until we saw that she was pregnant. So would really like to see what happens with her.
I've read that breeding boxes are a big no no and to let nature do its course but what are peoples opinions on breeding nets?
Thank you in advance.

 

[Mattyfelts]

Hi all. We purchased some new platy around 7-8 weeks ago and about 2 weeks ago I noticed that my female was getting bigger and had tiny black dots in the back of her tummy.
This evening I've noticed that she's being cornered by 4 of my male platys which is making her hide.
She's eating fine when fed.
Wondered if there were any signs to look out for when labour is imminent.
We weren't really bothered about breeding our fish until we saw that she was pregnant. So would really like to see what happens with her.
I've read that breeding boxes are a big no no and to let nature do its course but what are peoples opinions on breeding nets?
Thank you in advance.

I've used breeding nets with success, however I only did that the first time. The rest of my times breeding i just let nature take its course and have always come up with about 5-15 baby platy. Goodluck!

 

[Blindmelon119]

A bit of a spin-off question to your post. Do you have other females Platies in your tank? If you have four males with the one female, They will harass her to death.
From your pictures, I would guess in the next day or so, fairly soon.

 

[mrsodell]

A bit of a spin-off question to your post. Do you have other females Platies in your tank? If you have four males with the one female, They will harass her to death.
From your pictures, I would guess in the next day or so, fairly soon.

Yes, I have 2 other females. They usually chase each other but they just seem to be cornering this one today.. thanks for your reply

 

[Mattyfelts]

Ive never had a huge issue with harrassment, as long as you provide good hiding place (rocks, dw, and tunnels) they will usually be able to recover or hide. If you get that worried i would separate the males and females.

 

[fishy_friend]

you should have 2 females to 1 male generally. she looks ready to pop so only a day or so. I personally have tried both breeding nets and natural birth, it doesn't really make a difference except in a main tank you are more likely to loose the fry as breakfast, but in the net the female may get stressed and you will only get half healthy fry anyway so its up to you. pretty female as well, nice colouring!

 

[emerald76]

I generally let my fish give birth then catch and hand raise any that survive to the next day.

 

[Guglielmucci]

Sorry to intervene but we have the same issue but wondering if any of you lot can tell if our platy is pregnant, she has been big for about 3 weeks, but seems to hide a lot more now and has a male following her around please help ASAP

 

[Clownfishlover]

Is she still eating?

 

[Clownfishlover]

If she is being harassed I would put her in a breeding net to give her a rest from the annoying males If the males harass her too much she could die of stress.

 

[Guglielmucci]

She is eating like normal, and he isn't harassing her just swims near her and she does the same?

 

[my_fish77]

Well I have 2 female platys and one male and all I do is let the females have their babies in the tank then I just scoop them out and put them in the mesh cage. Right now I have 2 mesh cages with 2 different sizes for the platies, and their fine. I have 11 in total so far so as long as you provide lots of hiding spots for her and her fry you should be good.

 

[Clownfishlover]

Well then I would just decide whether you want to keep as many fry as possible or let nature do its thing.