Platy Fry

Hi everyone

I was very excited to discover my first fry in my tank! From what I can tell (lots of staring!) I could only count two so far, and it's been about 4-5 days now. Strangely enough my two females still look the exact same size? One is clearly more preggers than the other, but always has been. Do I have premature fry? . I thought they usually have a batch at once?

Anyway, I'm pretty sure these guys are going to make it - they're smartly hiding out in the plants. Since my dwarf gourami died last week from an ulcer there's only the 3 platies and some cories in there so I don't think they'll be eaten...

I'm wondering how long is it until they start developing their colours? All they look like now is super tiny with dark eyeballs with a clear body and insides! I'm curious as to what they'll look like as I have no idea which fish is the mother.

Also - I'm getting a quarantine tank soon - will fry be ok for a little while in an uncycled tank? I figured they wouldnt produce a whole lot of waste so would it be okay for awhile? I only ask because I think I'm going to have to treat for gill flukes/parasite with Sterazin (10 day treatment) because my platies have been flicking and clamping fins for awhile now (its not waterquality, parameters are ideal, and have not developed whitespot...). I thought the Sterazin would kill them. Obviously after the treatment I'd put them back and get the quarantine cycled properly...this is just a short term proposition. Thoughts?

New fry don't have to be placed into a cycled tank normally as they don't produce much waste to begin with, and there is time for the bacteria to keep up with the bioload. This is under the assumption you don't have 50+ fry in a 2 gallon mini tank, which you said you didn't, so things should be okay that way.

You may want to try heat treatment on your fish, cranking up your heat to 87F and leaving it there for two weeks. Normally you would leave the heat there until two weeks after the last signs of ich have disappeared, but since you have none, two weeks is what I would go with to see.

Colors will truly develop in about 2-3 months. The color the darken to originally won't necessary be accurate as you will see accents of other colors develop depending on the mother/father color combination.

Good luck.

Thankyou for your response

Yeah its only a couple of fry, if that.

But I don't think it's ich? The flicking/clamping has been going on near two weeks now with no signs of the 'salt' look...

ive got 2 platy fry that have survived in my main tank and they are just starting to show colour, both gunna be orange like mum, both 1 month old. they had brothers and sisters who were born with the micky mouse mark already on them but they are no longer to be seen, maybe they might appear who knows.
just had new platy fry that are in a fry tank and they were also born with their fins starting to go black like their mum but since ive got loads from that batch i can see that atleast 1 third of them are a much darker orange in colour so will prob turn out red just like dad.
then there are the sunset fhighfin platy fry, never breed these before and they are 3 weeks old and started grey, then went a light brown and now they are starting to go green/orange.

Wow! Sounds like you got a LOT of fry!

I'm not sure if I'm imagining it, but it looks like there might be a tiny smidge of black on the top and bottom of its tail - one of my females is a yellow twinbar so maybe they're going to look like her. But only time will tell! Hopefully they'll make it.

Is it weird that they've seemingly only popped two out and still look pregnant?

I've put some (not recent) pics below of my platies - the yellow and the white and orange/red ones are my females. The red and black wagtail is my male (although the babies probably aren't his anyway! Only had these fish about 6 weeks).

we've got a pregnant/birthing platy in our quarantine tank. she started giving birth about 2+1/2 weeks ago and we're up to about 11ish now and there's still more in her. this is the first time i've had fry - how long will she keep going for ?

Are you actually seeing her give birth or just finding more fry, because the birthing process should only be 24 hours in most cases? She may be having trouble birthing if you are still seeing the fish being birthed. It's normally four weeks pregnant and 24 hours for birthing.

I had a pregnant platy recently and had two early fry the rest came soon
she still looked pregnant for at least a week until she was back to normall

congratulations hope all is well

it has been worrying us. i can't believe they popped out earlier and have been hiding. she's not stressed or having a go at the fry and has a good appetite so we're just going to see how things go.

Well it's been nearly a week and I've still got only two fry and my females still look the same in terms of fatness...

i am new to fish and i have 2m 2f in my tank, last night i found 3 fry's. I am not sure what to do and one have any comments to help in my delima. I'd like to keep them.

platy101 said:

i am new to fish and i have 2m 2f in my tank, last night i found 3 fry's. I am not sure what to do and one have any comments to help in my delima. I'd like to keep them.

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Well your easiest option is to get a "net breeder" from any LFS and put them in there... With only three you wont have to worry about them getting too big for it anytime soon and they will be able to grow up big enough in there.

Your other option is to get an additional tank. If you dont already have a hospital tank it may be just the reason you need to get one. You dont have to get the filter at this point but you should probably get the heater. I would hold off on the filter unless you can afford it right now and a sponge filter would be perfect for a fry tank. 10 gallons are cheap and more than big enough to help grow up until they wont get eaten in the main tank. This will help you two fold since you should probably have a hospital tank anyways. I personally had one for a hospital tank and now it's my fry tank. I'm going to have to get another tank pretty soon for more fry and for a permanent hospital tank

Hopefully this wasnt too much to swallow at one time.. I would go with the net breeder though if you arent looking to keep fry in the future, although it's nice to have a QT tank around.