Pregnant Dwarf Platy

[hsherman1986]

I did not find the information I was looking for anywhere else, so i decided to post.

About a week ago I noticed my female dwarf platy was very fat, and assumed she was pregnant. About five days ago, I noticed the gravid spot, which confirmed my assumption.

My main question is, how long until she pops? Over the past few days, the one gravid spot on each side has turned into two spots on one side, and three on the other. I have a breeding box ready for her to save the fry (i have some major pigs in my tank that will eat the fry), but do not want to put her in it too soon.

This is my first attempt at breeding, so I am not really expecting any of the fry to survive, I just wanna try my hand at it and see how many I can successfully raise.

Any advice in this would be greatly appreciated. TIA

 

[Billsgate]

Breeding box? You can take any container you like (plastic box, fishtank,...), as long as you have at least a small sponge filter, and preferably a heater inside, and the container is thoroughly cleaned and was never in contact with any chemicals.

How long until she pops....hard to tell, but the gravid spots you are seeing may be the eyes of the fry inside. If so she should be due anywhere from now to a week later. Try doing a 30% water change, that may stimulate your female to give birth. Do you have any plants? I have a bunch of plants and my female guppies (livebearers as well) always swim between the plants to give birth (you know, so they feel safer, and the fry can hide out in there at first).

 

[BrianNY]

I would avoid the breeding box at all costs. They very often will send an expectant female fish into a death panic. The safest thing you can for the mother is to let her give birth in the tank. Hopefully a few of the fry will survive.

 

[Zagz]

I am not a fan of the breeder box either, I lost a beautiful silver lyretail molly to the breeder box. My brother in law's platies just gave birth last night, we sat with a net and caught 22 of the fry and put them into a net for their own safety. Good luck!

 

[hsherman1986]

thanks for the replies. The only thing with letting nature take its course is that we are not home enough to supervise and catch the fry before she eats them. We hardly get out of bed before noon, we are home for three hours after we get up, then it is off to work. We do not get home until 2-3am, and it is off to bed to start the day all over again. I want some of the fry to be able to survive, hence why i got the breeding box. She is not in it when we are home to supervise, but when we leave for work, we put her in there just in case.

as far as plants go, our tank is planted (3 amazon swords, one misc sword not sure exactly what it is, but it is huge, two micro swords, four anachris, one valisenerius (sp?), two red wentii, two mondo grass, one anubias, and two other types of sword plants that are a lot smaller than the amazons, but were sold as swords), so i am sure that the fry would have plenty of places to hide, i am just paranoid, I guess.

So as far as how long until she pops, you say anywhere from today to a week from now? The three spots on one side are a lot closer than they were when I originally posted this, and the side that originally had two now has three. And I noticed one of my mickey mouse platies has multiple gravid spots as well YAY MORE BABIES!!! lol (sorry, i am a little sleep dep, just got back from austin about 5 min. ago, left at 1am this morning, no sleep since i woke up yesterday at noon)

 

[bman]

I would recommend staying away from the breeding box as well. I did this on my last attempt to keep the fry but she held out for several days, and then one day I noticed she was much thinner, but had no babies to show for it. I am assuming that the breeding box confined the fry enough to be a good meal for her after giving birth.

Sounds like to probably have sufficient cover to allow the little ones to survive until you can come and sweep them out with the net. You will have to keep a close eye on the mom, and watch the entire tank like a hawk to find these miniscule fry.

I almost forgot, I found this link which has a ton of info on platy breeding. It hepled a little.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/platyfaqs.htm

 

[hsherman1986]

ok well, does any one else have any idea that won't require me to be watching the tank 24/7? I do work a lot, and cannot spend a lot of time watching my tank to see when she is going to pop? I was thinking about putting her in the 10 gal with my mollies, just so that i could find the fry better (planted tank as well, five anubias, one water sprite, and a random fake plant), but i am having issues with conditions staying stable in that tank. OTOH, I did find a single molly fry in there the day I came back from austin. Not sure if they ate the rest, or if we accedentally vaccuumed them up in a water change the day before we left for austin, but we do have a single molly baby.

Would that be better than a net or a box?

 

[daydreamer4186]

I have a breeding net and I put plants in it and my fish seem to be just fine....as long as it's not too long before they are ready to drop.

 

[hsherman1986]

yea, i bought a net and some "breeding grass" (the full plastic stuff) and have that set up in the tank. The fish are not in it yet, but it is set up and ready for them. The dwarf platy i am convinced it is going to be very soon. She is almost square shape and hiding in the plants a lot. The mickey mouse that is pregnant is kinda square, but not as much as the dwarf, very visible gravid spot though. I want to put them in the breeding net with that breeding grass while I am in Orlando. I leave on friday morning and wont get back until monday night. That is only if they do not have the babies before then. My mom is coming over to take care of the fish (feeding and everything) while we are gone, but she will not know what to do if the mom's to be give birth while we are gone.

i hope they will be ok in this set up while we are gone...I just want some of the babies to be able to survive, and I just feel like if i let them have free roam of the tank, the fry will not stand a chance