TheNewKids' Tank Journey

[TheNewKids]

Originally Posted by Mebbid

hehe yeah, they tend to be good at hiding

Could have sworn I saw close to 10 the other day when we took all the fake plants out and re-placed them, won't be surprised if there is even more I missed out on!

Originally Posted by Lynx99

Great stuff! Sounds as if all going well. Yes lots of people swear by Stability and of course I'm sure you've read there are lots here who don't put any faith in bottled bacteria. That said, now you have it you may as well use it up. Id dose the tanks for the 7 days as per the instructions.

Going very well, great to see everything is fine thus far - can't wait till it's cycled! Definitely read mixed reviews, I just didn't want to spike any levels, particularly as I haven't used it from the beginning of the cycle - I may just leave it for the next tank I need to cycle - still not sure.

[Lynx99]

Stability won't cause a spike in ammonia or nitrite. Your nitrates may rise as nitrate is the final product of bacteria consuming ammonium and nitrite. This rise in nitrate would happen anyway and happens in a fully cycled tank hence every aquarium owner ideally should do a pwc to keep nitrates in check.
All that said, now you have started naturally, and are testing the water daily continuing as you are is no prob. Stability claims it will speed up the whole cycle process.

[steviebetta]

Excellent wee read there. Hope all fish are doing fine. Sounds like a quick learning curve you are having lol

[TheNewKids]

Originally Posted by Lynx99

Stability won't cause a spike in ammonia or nitrite. Your nitrates may rise as nitrate is the final product of bacteria consuming ammonium and nitrite. This rise in nitrate would happen anyway and happens in a fully cycled tank hence every aquarium owner ideally should do a pwc to keep nitrates in check.
All that said, now you have started naturally, and are testing the water daily continuing as you are is no prob. Stability claims it will speed up the whole cycle process.

Oh I see, I was under the impression it raised ammonia and then converted it to nitrite and finally nitrate.. posing a harmful environment to the fish. I guess I'll continue on naturally, I don't really like adding chemicals to the water, particularly when fish are in there.

Originally Posted by steviebetta

Excellent wee read there. Hope all fish are doing fine. Sounds like a quick learning curve you are having lol

It definitely has; it's been fun so far!

Still got an issue with some platies being quite aggressive, particularly one of the orange ones (STILL!), whom is particularly aggressive to the mickey male platy, but not the peppermint male platy.

She seems to have marked out her territory around the driftwood centerpiece and ANY fish which comes near her she attacks.

The baby fry look healthy, I think they're starting to eat!

[TheNewKids]

So I've got an issue with that orange platy and the male mickey - she's continually attacked him and he now has a small dint on his neck near his gills, but isn't bleeding. He swims awkwardly, often contorting his body at times, and is different to other fish when attacked. When other platies have been nipped at that tend to swim away quickly, he just contorts his spine and let's them attack, as if he wants it to happen. He doesn't appear to be swimming well at all, almost sinking, or swimming on his side. The tank definitely isn't overstocked, and ammonia (we just tested) is no higher than 0.20 or so; we did a 25% WC today as mentioned above. It definitely is being picked on and targeted and we're just not sure what to do. He looks like he's suffering and doesn't know where to swim or what to do!

Is he injured? What can we do? We don't have another tank to separate him to..

[steviebetta]

Sorry to hear that. I'm new to this too. I only got my male betta at the weekend. Hope someone can advise you and hope the wee fish is ok.

[horsedogfish]

Platys are masters of hiding. Don't give up. Once the little ones figure out when feeding time is, they should show themselves and you can get a count It may be a couple of meals before you get a full count. I have a small one I only see every other day, but she seems healthy--swims well, the best color of all of them, She's been shy since the beginning. Good luck with the fry. I didn't know about the 3/1 ratio. Now I really need to figure out what gender mine are. I know there's at least one female because there were some fry at one point. LOL

[TheNewKids]

Originally Posted by horsedogfish

Platys are masters of hiding. Don't give up. Once the little ones figure out when feeding time is, they should show themselves and you can get a count It may be a couple of meals before you get a full count. I have a small one I only see every other day, but she seems healthy--swims well, the best color of all of them, She's been shy since the beginning. Good luck with the fry. I didn't know about the 3/1 ratio. Now I really need to figure out what gender mine are. I know there's at least one female because there were some fry at one point. LOL

This is a pretty simple indication of what is male and female:


Apparently if you don't have at a minimum a 2f to 1m ratio, the male can continuously attack and eventually kill the female he is targeting.

They still haven't worked out meal time, hopefully they will soon - I hope they're eating! There are a few that seem to swim together and some that seem more shy than others haha.

[TheNewKids]

Today's Update
Just got home from uni, 9 hours of pain :/ - fry seem to be doing well, no more active than yesterday but they look healthy - they're still not really venturing out of their plants just yet. The adult platies are all alive, however, I've noticed that the mickey and orange platy are both now making that weird contorted body movement like they're having a seizure, I wonder if it's because they've been attacking each other or if there is a water quality issue - I've noticed they're less aggressive in no light.

We'll most likely perform WCs on both tanks tomorrow.

[TheNewKids]

Our little mickey platy is no more - that is we returned him to the LFS. Everything seems to be fine now, and we just picked up a new male platy which seems to be much calmer and happier in the tank!

[Mebbid]

Glad to hear things are working out

I recently had to trade in one of my favorite fish because he continuously attacked an entire school of fish I added to the tank

[TheNewKids]

Originally Posted by Mebbid

Glad to hear things are working out

I recently had to trade in one of my favorite fish because he continuously attacked an entire school of fish I added to the tank

We didn't get to trade him in, we had to bring him back for free on our end and purchase a new platy

Anyways, within five minutes of placing the new platy in the tank he seems to have mated with an orange female platy - we'll upload the video soon! We fed the adults some cucumber today, and the fry some frozen brine shrimp; and did a PWC on the fry tank - we counted nine today!

The adults (particularly the orange and female mickey) seem to get rather aggressive when we leave the light on too long - so we've turned that off too. The male peppermint has also been a little hostile towards the new male platy.

[horsedogfish]

It took a while, but I determined I have 3 females and one male! Thanks for the help.

[TheNewKids]

Originally Posted by horsedogfish

It took a while, but I determined I have 3 females and one male! Thanks for the help.

No worries.

That's a good ratio - we're at 5f and 2m at the moment.

Did another PWC on the large tank today, ammonia was at 0.25 - so did a 30% change on it, all the adult platies seem quite happy; only a little aggressive behaviour today. They took well to the cucumber, and we just fed them some more flakes before bed tonight. As mentioned above counted nine fry, they're swimming happily and growing each day!

[TheNewKids]

Today's Update:
We picked up a breeder box today; which we'll probably use tonight because our sunset platy looks like she's pretty close to going into labour; we can see a clear tube just below her anal opening; as well as a dark gravid spot. She still looks relatively active though, pecking away at driftwood - are all fish obsessed with pecking at driftwood?

But, we do expect her to have it within the next few days; if not tonight.

The fry are going well, we did a 30% PWC today, they seem happy swimming around. The adult platys are doing well, still no nitrites in either tank; so hopefully we see some soon - can't wait till this cycle is over!

Here's the video we promised of the orange female platy and our new male platy breeding.

[TheNewKids]

We're in the process of a birth!!

So it took us around two hours to catch our pregnant platy, and just before we caught her from the 20g tank, I noticed a flickering and all the adult platies chase after something - a fry!

We managed to catch her; and place her in the breeding tank; where she is currently in labour - five healthy fry thus far!

Pregnancy Information
- Very dark gravid spot
- Visible white tube over the past 24 hours
- Platy noticeably squaring off
- Platy seeking refuge in aquarium plants, hiding away from other fish
- Other fish following her around from time to time
- Pacing up and down
- Fry's eyes visible in belly

Time of Labour: 4AM

[TheNewKids]

The mother continued to give birth last night, and we woke to around 30 fry!

[Buu]

Originally Posted by TheNewKids

The mother continued to give birth last night, and we woke to around 30 fry!

Congrats! Whew you know that platy must be tiiiired. Haha I love how detailed your "journal" is by the way. What are you going to do with all those babies?!

[TheNewKids]

Originally Posted by Buu

Congrats! Whew you know that platy must be tiiiired. Haha I love how detailed your "journal" is by the way. What are you going to do with all those babies?!

Thanks for following - feels like I'm talking to myself sometimes haha; you guys definitely keep me motivated to keep updating the journal.

Haha, she'd definitely be tired - I know she started popping them out around 4AM, and by 4:50 or so she'd only had 5 or 6 - so, I'd imagine that her labour went for at least a few hours!

We actually had one or two fry in the adult tank and they chased them into the gravel! We managed to save the little one we could see though, so he's happily swimming around in the fry tank.

We'll be doing PWCs on both tanks today; the adult's are pooping like crazy lately!

As for all the babies, we have around 40 in the fry tank as it is right now - and I believe at least another female pregnant. If the breeding gets a little too out of hand, we plan on allowing nature to do it's course (not using a breeding box). For now, we've got the 40 fry in a 10g tank, and we're not planning on any more tanks for the time being - they should be fine till at least one or two months of age, at which point we'll look to sell some and probably keep the 'prettier' ones.

[Lynx99]

So how are things going with the new set up and all your fry? I'm sure they are keeping you busy!