Platy Fry Help

Hello, I am new at this so please bare with me, this may get long. I have had Betta fish as pets for over 2 years, so I'm not completely new to fish but I am new when it comes to platies and tetras.

Ok, to make a long story short, I am NOT one who usually gets a new pet without knowing how to take care of it. But my daughter wanted a puppy, and to compromise we got some fish 2 weeks ago.

One aquarium has goldfish in it, one has tetras and the other has platies in it.

When I purchased the platies, the lady at the pet store asked me to buy a pregnant one as well. She said that she cried every time she saw a pregnant platy, because the storeowners would not let her take care of the fry. Basically she was upset about seeing them getting eaten.

She said she could not purchase another one because she had already saved 16 preg platies and had no more room for aquariums.

So to make a long story short, she told me to buy a tank for the platies and a one-gallon plastic tank for the mama, she helped me pick out some plastic plants and gave me the proper food.

She told me to isolate the mama in the one-gallon until she had her babies, then to move her to the main tank after so that she would not eat them.

Well when I got home and looked platies up on the Internet, I started to feel as if I had been had. For one thing, I found out live plants were needed and not plastic ones. So I called every wal-mart in the surrounding areas to see if I could find one that was open all night and that had live plants. I finally found one about 45 miles away, and spent half the night going to get some plants for my fish.

Once I have them setup, they were happy, and all but one have survived over the past two weeks.

Well, I have had the "mama" platy in her gallon tank, and had pretty much given up an idea of her having babies. I felt that I had been talked into buying plastic plants that I did not need, and also another aquarium that I didn't really need.

I was going to move the mama into the big tank this week, and just throw the one-gallon tanks away because I do not like placing fish in such a small space.

Well this evening, my daughter says, "Mama there is a baby fish in here" and was all excited because she said she could see HUNDREDS of them. I told her they were not fish, probably just rocks.

Well when she kept insisting that they were baby fish, I went to look and although there were not HUNDREDS of fry, there are 17 baby fry swimming in the tank.

I quickly moved the mama to the big tank with the other adult platies, but while I was doing that, my daughter started crying and said that one of the fish got sucked up. I had NO idea what she was talking about until I saw that the filter was drawing the babies towards it, and sucking them into the tube.

The filter is not like the ones on my big tanks, those filters are big. This filter is just a lil stone with a tube that drops into a plastic round tube.

It's a cheap setup, and I HATE IT. Right now I have turned off the filter and the fry look happy. But I do not want to leave the filter off for long.

I tried attaching panty hose to it, but that did not work well. The fry kept getting sucked into the hose and I did not want them hurt, so I gave up that idea.

The one that was sucked up did not die, I just cut it off, and he fell off the rock and went swimming on his merry way.

So it doesn't seem to be a strong filter at all, but it's still too strong for the fry.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix it where they will not get sucked up, or are there any types of filters I can buy that are fry friendly?

If I have to buy another 10 gallon I will, cost is not an option. I just want the best environment for the fry, one that won't be harmful or stressful for them.

The mama platy is happy now, she's swimming with the other adults and the fry have come out of hiding from the rocks and plants since I removed her, it's a beautiful site to see!!

I know some of the babies may die, but I want to do all I can for them, can they live without a filter, or what can I do about getting a filter that is good for them and not too strong to suck them up?

I hope someone can help me here, I know I am new here in the forum, and I hate for my first post to be one begging for help....but after searching google for hours, I do not know what to do!

Maria

Well i'm a big platy fan myself and just had some fry and expecting more... Personally it is a good thing that you have them in a little tank. As for the filter, you had the right idea with the panty hose, if you can at all section off the tank so they can't get to the filter. You really don't need to put a filter in with them because they are fry, they won't produce much waste. I don't run a filter until 2 weeks old because by then with supervision they usually don't get sucked up they are smarter. Personally I use a Nano Filter made my RedSea Nano Filter . You can use this and just put like craft netting tightly over the intake or use what you have just make sure that its tight over it so its nothing baggy that they can get caught in.

Also for their tank you can use a gravel bottom but be warned they will crawl in between the stones. Personally i don't use gravel at all, I just leave the bottom clean. You really don't need real plants, they are preferred but i tried using them and it was too much of a hassel. try using any plastic plant that is big or anything really that has leaves they will use it for cover. You can even use reptile plants and just let them float at the top.

It sounds like your doing good! Feel free to Personal Message me if you have any questions or you can keep posting on her. I've dealt with a lot of fry platy's and its kinda become a major hobby for me to take care of fry. Goodluck!!

Thanks for the help. I had not thought to section off part of the tank, I can do that easily using more pantyhose.

And I'm glad to hear they are ok without a filter for right now, I was worried that if they went more than a few hours without one that they may get sick.

I'll also get a nano filter to set aside just in case I ever need one.

The tank does have gravel in it, I noticed some of them getting stuck in the rocks so I removed most of them. There are still a few rocks left in the tank, but I'll remove those tomorrow when I clean it. I can't clean it right now because the water to put in it hasn't set for 24 hours yet, it's still cold. I thought they would be bigger than what they are, and I was surprised to see them wiggling among the rocks. If I had known beforehand I would have not put rocks in the tank at all.

What's a reptile plant? I haven't heard of those before. Right now they have one large live plant in the tank, and nothing more. Not much else will fit in the tank since it's so small.

Thanks so much for your help, the idea about sectioning off the tank is GREAT and something I will be doing tomorrow when I clean the tank. That'll solve the filter problem until I can get a gentler filter.

I hope they all survive; I already have homes for them if they do. My brother has a 50 gallon aquarium in storage and said he would use it if I gave some of the fry to his sons once the fry are 2 months old, and my ex husband has a ten gallon that he had in storage that he is setting up for our daughter to have when she visits him, so he'll be getting two of them.

So I hope to have 4 more for my own tanks, 2 for my ex and then the rest to my nephews. The family is all excited about the babies; they can't believe she had some so soon after purchase.

Actually I can't hardly believe it myself, I had just about given up hope and was really thinking I had been talked into buying just more junk I didn't need, from a person trying to increase her sales volume. The money isn't a problem; I always buy any of my pets everything I can to make sure they are happy. My cats, my snakes and now my fish. I just wasn't liking the thought that maybe I had been talked into buying things I would never use, by someone that didn't care as much about fish as she pretended to be. I now see that the lady was right, the platy did have babies, and the extra tank was a very good investment for them.

Now if I can just figure out how to keep my ghost shrimp from dying on me, I will be happy. I purchased 10 of those, but only one has survived at this point. I won't be purchasing any more of those until I figure out why the other 9 died.

Anyways, thanks again for the help! Now that I know they are ok for the night, I won't be running all over the state trying to find something for a filter. And they can sleep now, without me peering into the tank every 5 minutes to make sure that they are ok and still swimming actively.

Also, do you know anything about tetras with hearts on their sides? Is this natural or is this a tattoo or sticker that they put on the fish? The pet store has some of these also, but I didn't buy any because if they are painted I would not want to support such a practice by purchasing any.

I thought they were painted, but since the mickey mouse platies have the mouse pattern naturally then maybe the tetras are natural as well. Would you know?

As for the reptile plants I was referring too I purchsed them at Petsmart but I couldn't find them online but here is a picture of mine... and how I use them...





These are great plants, all of my fry i've had so far love them. Also I would probably try to get a heater in the tank with them fry usually like warm temps around 78 degrees. Make sure you have good food for them too, you can use your normal flake food if you want just crush it real well so its into a powder to feed them or I would recommend Wardley's Small Fry Liquid Food.

As for the tetras your talking about I believe they are referred to as Bleeding Heart Tetra's. They are natural in fact they are basically see through and so the heart that you are seeing is really their heart. I used to own them when i was younger. It is natural and quite interesting...

Thanks again, I do have a heater for the tank but it's a big one. I hope to find a smaller one soon. I also have a thermometer on it, that shows 78-80 degrees.

They are all doing fine still, and are eating. I crushed up some flakes really fine, and they are munching on that right now as I type. I'll try to find some of the liquid fish food tomorrow as well.

Thanks for the pics of the reptile plants, I'll see if I can locate some. We do not have a pet-smart here, just a wal-mart and a pet store in the mall. We used to have a shop called fish n more that was owned by a local family, but it went out of business. I loved going there, they would order anything I needed for my bettas and snakes and I never had a problem getting hard to find items. I'll see if one of the larger towns around here has a pet-smart.

The fry have now come out of hiding well, and I counted 22 before I lost count. I have no idea how many are in the tank now, I didn't know there would be so many. They seem to be very happy, and the mama is happy being in the big tank. She was just lying at the bottom of the small tank, had been doing this for about 3 days. She's now swimming in the big tank and is a lot more active than she has been.

As for the tetra, the ones with the hearts aren't the bleeding heart ones I don't think. They are white with hearts on both sides, not heart hearts but more like valentine hearts, unless the bleeding heart tetras hearts are shaped like the valentine hearts. I can't seem to find any images of bleeding heart tetras on google but I'll keep looking.

And thanks again for the help, you've made me feel very welcome here

I can't say that i've ever seen the tetra your referring too. It sounds interesting so keep doing some research in fact go ahead and do another post in Tropical Fish Forums: Tropical Chat section and see what you get.

As for your fry it sounds like you are taking very good care of them! Just so you know a female platy once having fry will have fry again 3 - 4 weeks after her first batch. So in about 3 or 4 weeks you may wanna keep an eye on her and maybe even put her back in the one gallon or you can just watch her in the main tank. Once the female is breed she will have a couple of sets of fry always about a month apart. Im not sure how long that will continue; i haven't figured that out yet but i would just keep an eye on her it sounds like she had a lot of fry in the fish store so she might be done for now.

You are very welcome and i'm glad you feel welcome here!!! There are a lot of members that are always willing to help so feel free to look around and remember that there are no stupid questions; the only stupid questions are the ones not asked. Also remember that sometimes other people in the forum guess with information so make sure you double check certain advice if its something major; I learned that the hard way. Otherwise WELCOME!!!

first off congrats on the fry, sounds like your spoiling them rotten, THESE are bleeding heart tetras, are they what you saw at the store?

Hey,
congrats on the fry. if i were you i would use a cheap marina air filter. it's powered by an air pump and does not suck em up or make a current, yet it cleans the water. you will need 2 fill it wiv a little bit of carbon and filter wool and, job done! pluz, its only small, i could fit it in my 1 gallon tank easily and i still have all 21 platy fry now. even more pluz, its really cheap.
good luck!!!!!

I was just about to say she needn't bother with the liquid fry food then I noticed this thread is nearly a year old! Wonder how the fry are doing now?