Platies about to give birth? Advice please?

[mbradley672]

Hi I'm semi new to the fish world had some in the past but its been years got these about two weeks ago and they seem to be pregnant. We dont have alot of money and were trying to make shure that the fry have a chance to live if they really are pregnant and were looking to see about when they are going to pop. and what we should do to maximize the amount of fry that live
ive included pics...

 

[7Enigma]

What does the rest of your tank look like? Are there any live plants? The best thing you can provide for fry is pristine water quality and lots of hiding spots.

When very small they will find places to hide and will feed on microscopic debris. I have never specifically fed my fry, nor removed them to another area and look at my tank...bursting full with them.

But plants like java moss and riccia are great places for the fry to hide. As long as the adults have a regular supply of food I have noticed they only really go after the fry when they bump up next to them. Most of the time they are never close to each other and the fry know how to evade well.

I would just keep the water clean and pretend you don't have fry. Remember that each platy can have upwards of 10-20 fry so sometimes it's a good thing that not all survive. Those that don't are food for the other fish and while this sounds callouse it's nature.

Just check the buckets of used water before you dump them and net out any fry that got sucked up. When my fish were heavily breeding I would always find 3-4 fry and put them back in the tank before flushing the water.

HTH

 

[mbradley672]

no i dont have any live plants im trying to find some duckweed plants actually Richmond Aquarium is out of all of its live plants petsmart dont have any nor petco and i dont know of a lot of places as im just getting back into fish...

 

[mbradley672]

hertes how we have the tank right now
also what is that that is in the net? the last picture

 

[7Enigma]

I'm a bit concerned about your water. It appears quite cloudy which would indictate a bacterial bloom which would indicate you are cycling. Are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle?

You need to get a liquid reagent test kit (or take some of your water to a fish store and have them test it). My gut says you probably have some ammonia/nitrIte problems and if so that is the WORST thing for fry as they will not survive.

In the meantime I would recommend daily large water changes (50%) to help cope with the possible ammonia poisoning.

 

[mbradley672]

My amonia levels are a little above normal but I think it's just my tank glass the tank is about on it's last two days of it's cycle

 

[arrynyo]

im probably going to get murdered for suggesting this but its worked for me....
i have a lone female platy and male in my community tank, and when she was first ready to drop, i made my own breeder trap out of those plastic gladware containers, ill have some pics on the post of it....all i did was take 2 of them of different sizes, one big one and one smaller one. i cut very small slits on the bottom of the bigger container and attached it to the smaller one with some yarn (crude, i know, but it worked). the slits on mine were a bit big so the fry swam back through and subsequently got eaten but live and learn, then i took a small dremel and made holes on the side of the containers so i could have some water flowing through it when i put it in the tank. finally i lowered my kludge into the tank, carefully placed the mom to be in it, and within literally hours, i had at least 20 fry in the bottom container! sure like 3 got eaten and lord knows how many escaped in a botched transfer to a 1 gallon tank, but i count at least 20-21 that i know are in there and at least 6 still with the main population. but yes, plants help a LOT, but i thought id share some of my tricks (if you can call them that) just in case you wanted to try something else. and as you can see from the pic (hopefully you can see all those darn fry) it worked with no problems.....but like i said ill probably be chewed out royally for giving such advice....hope i helped in some way!

 

[mbradley672]

i think its good advice its good for those on a budget
I think one way to make that better to make it more safe for the fish (correct me if im wrong) burn the holes with a lighter to make the edges of the holes smoother to avoid injury

 

[arrynyo]

yeah that would have been smarter but i didnt have a lot of time when i made it (she was literally about to pop). it was a rush job, but so far has worked twice with no adverse affects. she seems to like it better than just dropping the babies in the tank. and i can get her within minutes of dropping as well, which makes it easier. ill work on a less crude version using the same materials and i will burn the holes this time. that is a better idea!

 

[mbradley672]

Well shes giving birth as we speak! Shes been in labor for about an hour!

12:33 EST: 5fry we've seen

 

[arrynyo]

awesome! me and my girlfriend always pull up a chair and grap some popcorn when its birthing time for our platy. its cool to watch the little guys pop out. but i think she might drop again because she hasnt slimmed down any since she dropped 2 weeks ago....but congrats!

 

[mbradley672]

I read that platies don't slim down for about a month or two

 

[arrynyo]

yeah it sounds about right. last month she dropped, but this month she dropped again....ill see if she gets that box shape again, hopefully she wont because im out of room for all the fry shes been having....

 

[mbradley672]

Well I also read that they can store semen to basicly have multiple preganacys
course I could have read wrong... I'll see if I can find these links again for refernece

 

[logansmomma1228]

Did you cycle your tank before you put the fish in it? Or did you cycle it with the fish?

 

[mbradley672]

With I didn't know about fishless cycles when I got them it's been 10-15 years since me and my wife had fish and we were kids then. But I took the water to a couple of places and the only thing that I have an issue with is ammonia and both said that fry or any fish for that matter were living but when I put in some ammonia remover in the tank along with a 50% water change and retested the water three tetra died and the mother that just gave birth died. So I don't know what's going on with my tank anymore it's acticg weird. I'm hopefully getting a new tank a used 55gallon tank and starting over. Sorry for any spelling errors I'm doing this from my iPhone.

Edit:
oh iforgot to add that one of my platies got ich("ick") and am treating them with a half dose because of the tetras just added that today and also added some aquarium salt just shy of two tablespoons being ten gallons

 

[arrynyo]

i cycled my tank with those 25 cent goldfish you get at wal mart. i let them do their thing for about a summer and then i started adding my real fish this past winter after numerous water changes. i havent had any problems at all, save for a female molly getting sexed to death....but thats a whole different issue in itself....

 

[taylorodw]

Establishing a tank is the most difficult part. Right now there are a few things going on with your tank:

Water quality is poor. I know it doesn't seem like much to have an ammonia problem, but unfortunately to your fish it's a big deal. That ammonia problem is, indirectly, why your water is cloudy, and, directly, why your fish are dying and have caught ich. When the water has ammonia, all of the fish have much lower natural defenses and immune systems.

Adding ich medication can help, but can also make things worse. I would stop with the medication if I were you. If you want to try to save the tank, try this:

Slowly increase the temperature up to 86 degrees F. Try for 2-3 degrees a day. This will make the ich speed up its life cycle and die off more quickly.

Since you are having ammonia problems, do 25-40% water changes every day (I know it sounds like a lot but your fish are going through a really tough time right now!). This is where your personal discretion is important, because the clean water will help the fish, but the bigger the water change, the more stressful to the fish. So if they are looking like they have one foot in the grave, try a 25% water change. If they perk right up, and are in better shape the next day, change more water. Just be careful to match the temperature, as any big changes right now will only stress them more.

 

[mbradley672]

I figured out why mu ammonia levels are so high
a spider crawled into the tank through a crack in the top and drowned.... We are working on the issue now we got the ammonia down but are still working on it we have some ammo chips in as well and some API ammonia remover

 

[taylorodw]

In a two week old tank with as many chemicals as you've put in, the ammonia issues are much more likely caused by your tank's nitrogen cycle. That's not a criticism. I am sure that you, just like me when I was first starting to really research and ask for advice, are learning massive amounts of information that would have been most helpful two weeks ago

Putting more things in the tank could possibly work but my experience says change the water, quit the chemicals, and raise the temp. Everyone's experience is different though so if your changes are working, feel free to prove me wrong.