Caring for new Platy fry in adult tank

[Ponch]

My blue mickey mouse platy gave birth yesterday to an unknown amount of fry. i don't have an extra tank for them at the moment and to date they have been successfully hiding in plastic plants and avoiding the two platy adults. This is my first time rearing fry and I have questions!!!

1 - i know they need pristine water conditions. my tank has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and ~5 - 10 nitrate with a weekly water change. Is this OK? Or should do daily or every two day water changes?

2 - In a tank with adults how do you ensure they are being adequately fed? i know they need to be fed 2-3x per day. I have some fry food ground into a fine powder which i have been dropping into the tank a couple times per day. this food sinks to bottom and I assume they are getting it.

3 - i'm going to look into breeder nets today at the LFS. aside from those does anyone know a good DIY in-tank fry container so i can keep them all in one place, and make sure they get food?

Thx.

 

[Bubbles0oO]

You could

Cut a gallon jug in half with pinholes in the sides and clip it to your tank

Do the same with a 2 liter bottle

Or a Tupperware

 

[Fdsh5]

I dont separate my platies. The fry are in the same tank. I have tons of hornwort and rocks for them to hide in. I also do my usual weekly water changes and that's it. I wouldn't worry about losing fry. Honestly if they are hiding now they'll be okay. And if yours start to spawn like my platies do, you'll be looking for someone to take some of the juvies off your hands. Congrats on the breeding and whatever you are doing stick to it. It's working. When you start to change things up is when you run into problems



Don't know if you can see the fry in the middle of the pic

 

[Ponch]

You could

Cut a gallon jug in half with pinholes in the sides and clip it to your tank

Do the same with a 2 liter bottle

Or a Tupperware

Thanks ! I just set up the plastic jug cut in half...so far so good. Had fun trying to catch the fry too... Counted 13 live ones and 2 dead ones.

Now off to petsmart for fry food. Any recos?

 

[Ponch]

I dont separate my platies. The fry are in the same tank. I have tons of hornwort and rocks for them to hide in. I also do my usual weekly water changes and that's it. I wouldn't worry about losing fry. Honestly if they are hiding now they'll be okay. And if yours start to spawn like my platies do, you'll be looking for someone to take some of the juvies off your hands. Congrats on the breeding and whatever you are doing stick to it. It's working. When you start to change things up is when you run into problems

Don't know if you can see the fry in the middle of the pic

I thought about that approach a lot but simce this is my first time raising fry and i qant to have a high survival rate am now of mindset to try to separate them to ensure their proper care nd feeding. Who knows... It could backfire and be worse but for now seems the right thing to try and do.

Cute fry pic! They are so hard to see in gravel arent they!

 

[Fdsh5]

Yeah sometimes you just have to sit there and watch for movement to find them. I just feed mine crushed up flake food. They love it. That's the other time I see them is feeding tome when they venture out for some grub.

 

[Ponch]

You could

Cut a gallon jug in half with pinholes in the sides and clip it to your tank

So I did this and set it up yesterday... Working well so far. However, has anyone ever heard of a gallon jug causing an ammonia spike when placed into the tank....perhaps chemicals leaching ? I changed the water on Friday and wouldn't normally test again for 3-4 days but decided too today when I noticed my adult platies looking sluggish on the bottom of the tank. Ammonia was 1.0ppm and nitrite was 0.25ppm. Did a series of large water changes to bring those readings down to zero but kinda wondering what may have triggered this.

I should note this is a qt that was set up 1.5 weeks ago to qt these two new platies I bought. I brought an established filter over from my main tank so I would have an instantly cycled tank. Through the first week things looked good (no ammo or trites...with nitrate bw 5-10ppm).

It's possible I could have overfed since the fry were born on Friday but I can't imagine fry powdered food causing a spike like this. Thoughts?

 

[Ponch]

So I did this and set it up yesterday... Working well so far. However, has anyone ever heard of a gallon jug causing an ammonia spike when placed into the tank....perhaps chemicals leaching ? I changed the water on Friday and wouldn't normally test again for 3-4 days but decided too today when I noticed my adult platies looking sluggish on the bottom of the tank. Ammonia was 1.0ppm and nitrite was 0.25ppm. Did a series of large water changes to bring those readings down to zero but kinda wondering what may have triggered this.

I should note this is a qt that was set up 1.5 weeks ago to qt these two new platies I bought. I brought an established filter over from my main tank so I would have an instantly cycled tank. Through the first week things looked good (no ammo or trites...with nitrate bw 5-10ppm).

It's possible I could have overfed since the fry were born on Friday but I can't imagine fry powdered food causing a spike like this. Thoughts?

I lost both of my adult platies in the last 18 hours. Luckily I still have 9 fry who will from the mommy, but it's just sad. Things went downhill when I netted the fry and moved them into a gallon water jug cut in half and clipped to the side of the tank. It's my strong suspicion that the plastic on the outside of the gallon jug, which was floating in the main tank, leached chemicals. However I can't discount the fact that the two adults were in the tank which was climbing to 1 ppm ammonia for two days before I caught it. I think the former though because the fry were fine inside the jug.

 

[Gish]

sorry to hear about your platys.

i've seen small in tank fry containers at the mega-mart fish stores for less than 5 bucks. i'd get one if you're worried about the plastic jug.

doesn't make sense why your nitrates would vary so much just over a couple days of overfeeding. unless you have a small tank (less than 10 gallons)

btw-i've only had a tank for less than 30 days, so I could be wrong about the chemistry.

 

[Ponch]

sorry to hear about your platys.

i've seen small in tank fry containers at the mega-mart fish stores for less than 5 bucks. i'd get one if you're worried about the plastic jug.

doesn't make sense why your nitrates would vary so much just over a couple days of overfeeding. unless you have a small tank (less than 10 gallons)

btw-i've only had a tank for less than 30 days, so I could be wrong about the chemistry.

Gish - the tank is a small 5gallon which I was only using for quarantine proposes for 30 days. So point well taken that a couple days of over feeding could have spiked the toxin levels quickly.

My focus now is to raise these fry! So I will take a ride to the LFS tomorrow and look for an in tank fry container. Right now they are in temporary housing ..... A glass vase in the tank surrounded my temp matched tank water. There drawnack here is no flow,through of tank water. Never easy ..

 

[Bubbles0oO]

Are there any remaining fish in the tank? If not you can put the fry in there and have that like the grow out tank

 

[Ponch]

Are there any remaining fish in the tank? If not you can put the fry in there and have that like the grow out tank

There's no more adult fish in the tank. I may do that although would need to get a sponge filter.... As i tried to put fry in main tank last night ad the filter current was too strong and blowing them all over the place- they couldnt stay upright! If I go this route I'd essentially be starting with an un-cycled filter

 

[Bubbles0oO]

You could float a seeded filter cartridge and fill the tank with your main tanks water. Then add fry also have the sponge filter going so it is seeded by the other cartridge

 

[Ponch]

You could float a seeded filter cartridge and fill the tank with your main tanks water. Then add fry also have the sponge filter going so it is seeded by the other cartridge

I really like that idea bubbles - trying it now! Sure beats 2-3 water changes per day

 

[Ponch]

Just take a piece of filter media out of my main tank and boy did that kick up a cloud of nastiness!

Thanks for the greet idea

 

[Bubbles0oO]

Lol, I did that with my 10 g fry/ snail tank. Worked well and actually took out the cartridge I seeded it with and put it back in main tank. Ended up with 2 seeded sponges! Leave it in for a month or so though so you know it's good and seeded untill you move the other cartridge back. You can add fish the day you add the cartridge. Just make sure to add the new one same time. Wow this is a long post lol here is list if that was confusing

Set up tank with tank water and new water( mixed)
Add filter cartridge ( seeded)
Add new sponge filter
Add fish
Watch levels as they may flux

 

[Ponch]

It's all over. I cannot understand why but I've now lost all the fry from the recently deceased mother. A couple every day since last Sunday down to the final 3 today. So sad.

Ever since I caught that ammonia spike last Sunday it's all been down hill. First the two adults and then the fry (who I thought were unaffected in their plastic gallon jug floating house).

The tank water params have been pristine since last Sunday and I even built a DIY sponge filter that was being seeded with filter media from my main tank. Maybe the brief ammonia exposure they all had over 1-2 days was the culprit. Maybe the plastic gallon jug leached un-detectable toxins. Im a little paranoid now. Because I have a pregnant Molly in the main tank and after this experience I'm thinking those fry will be better off staying in the main tank with some plant cover and fending for themselves vs this death trap of a grow-out tank I've got! Can anyone relate to this?

 

[Bubbles0oO]

sorry about your fry ,
If your going to do the natural way add some mosses or something so they can hide

 

[Gish]

Sorry about the fry. It's sad but - circle of life. -- birth and rebirth -- food chain. Etc

Also these species aren't on the endangered list either


I agree that maybe the less manipulation the better. Natural/ floating plants are growing well in my tank and the free fry I got from the lfs has survived among the big fish do far

I'm sure survival will increase with the next batch as now you will have fully cycled tanks