Mystery Fry

[Heatheratl11]

Any guesses on what type of fry this might be? Found several of them in my tank today.. managed to put a few in my little fry tank. I have no clue what they are though.. I guess its a bit hard to tell when they are this small. I do have a couple mollies and platys, but they don't really resemble any of them. I'm wondering if they are from hatched eggs? I have several different kinds of tetra, nothing too unusual. Any thoughts?

 

[willsta2000]

It takes weeks for fry to come to resemble their parents, as in early development, all vertebrates go through the same processes, granted the points where different genes "turn on," causing differentiation happen at different times. Wait a couple of weeks, and you'll know which fish was the parental species.
Developmentally, even humans closely resemble fish (have gills) very early on.

 

[Heatheratl11]

I guess its the black tipped fins that are throwing me off. I've had batches of platty and molly fry, but never with high fins with black tips.

 

[willsta2000]

They could definitely be tetras, the anal fin gene has yet to be expressed.

 

[Heatheratl11]

The more I look at them, the more sure I feel that they are serpae tetra. I guess we shall see in the coming weeks. Thanks for your response.

 

[newfound77951]

Not tetras with that tail shape. Platy is my guess. Im not sure if platies and mollies can interbreed, but if they can that is another possibility.

 

[mfdrookie516]

look just like my platy fry in one of my tanks right now

 

[Blueiz]

Agree, they looklike platies to me too. I have some red wags and that is what they look like when they are just born. The older they get the more they will color up.

 

[Heatheratl11]

Hum. Whats weird is I don't have a male platy in the tank right now but I do have a male molly. The molly is a silver sailfin and the platy is solid orange. Weird. The other thing that throws me off is all of them have black tips.

 

[Blueiz]

You don't have to have a male in the tank. Most, if not all livebearers that you buy are already pregnant, and can have several batches of fry from one mating. They are most likely going to have black fins.

 

[Heatheratl11]

I was able to get a bit better or a picture and I would agree.. its most likely a platy. I did not really pay attention to the tail before. I'm still happy with my little guys. I only see a total of 5 and was able to scoop them up. I guess the others got eaten. Any guess on how old these guys are? I also found a dalmation molly a couple weeks ago. How big is big enough to release into the tank?

Thanks again for all the responses!

 

[mfdrookie516]

i have 3 platy fry that have made it long enough to come out finally... platys are slow growers for some reason, but once theyre big enough to not fit in to the other fishes mouths, you'll be safe. I just let nature take its course. How long have you had them? They can hold sperm for quite some time, so if you havent had them long, the dad is probably at the lfs or in somebody elses tank

EDIT: oops, repeated blueiz lol

 

[Heatheratl11]

Well the female I suspect I have had since she was a fry. I do have two others that I got about a month ago but I never saw a gravid spot and they never looked thick. Who knows! lol I think my dalmatian molly might be big enough.. she is much bigger than the platy?? fry. She is pecking at the little fry in the fry tank so I'm considering giving her the dump into the big one. We'll see if she behaves tonight!

 

[Samuel-Bennett]

I had one platy and it grew so quick, was only in the box for about a week and half, the second lot I had (all 2 of them lol) took longer to grow though