Too many fry

[flushingfish]

I thought it was cute when I posted in another thread that we had unexpectantly found platy fry in the 20G planted community. I was making plans to move the dad out of the tank into a 5G I have with a couple of danios in it but he's hard to catch. The female spawned again and now instead of having 3 babies in my at the stocking limit 20G I now have 5 new tiny orange dots hiding in my plants. There is no way my tank can hold this much stock. I don't have the space for another tank right now. I was thinking of setting up a fish trap to hopefully catch the male and maybe a few of the kids but, what to do with them once caught. Will my LFS take them for credit or probably use them as feeders? Looking for solutions. The tank is fairly heavily planted which makes netting anything a tough task. I do need to figure this out before they get too large because I think that will take my bioload right over the edge.

 

[Zagz]

Your lfs will most likely take them but not likely until they are a bit bigger. Talk to them and see what size is the smallest they will take them at.

Even if you remove the male the female could still have several batches of fry, livebearer's store sperm. You may have this problem for a while yet.

 

[zenkatydid]

what did you expect to happen with livebearers? my guppy population has more than doubled in the month i've had them - but that's why they have a whole tank to themselves.

you could maybe get rid of the female (and female babies) and keep the males.

 

[OceanMaiden]

HA! I know what you mean flushing fish, I now have a 10 gallon set up for fry and baby apple snails. It is currently got my baby apples and now a swarm (100+) of baby molly fry. I had to fish all those fry out of a moderatley planted 29 gal, I was about soaked by the time I got them all. Oh and the girls STILL drop fry from time to time even though the dad has passed away from dropsy quite some time ago. Prolific! I'm lucky though as a local LFS will take the fry from me at 40 cents a piece. Not much but I know they will all get a home of their own. Best Wishes with the babies!!

 

[flushingfish]

I think I may have to pick up a 10G to put the female and the fry in at least until she runs out of reserved sperm. I will have to build a fish trap to get the parents as they run whenever the net gets within three feet of the tank and I really don't want to tear up all my plants to catch them.