Pregenant Platy

Hi

Not a huge emergency but i want to make sure that it not anything serious.

My platy is very big and has a black mark near its anal fin.

I have attached a photo which is not great quality because she kept moving.

I have a bi orb tank so can a breeding trap fit in there?

What are the signs of pregenacy?

How long before i move here into a breeding trap?

How can you tell, how far they are into the pregnancy?

Thanks

Only see a blur

Yeah, I will try and get a better photo. Can you see the general shape though

Looks prego or really fat.... it should have a little bit of a squarish shape if its pregnant...just wait until someone more experienced gets on in a little while...you might want to get your stats ready as thats always important. pH,amm.,nitrates,nitrites,hardness,tank size,temp...etc. GOOD LUCK

P>S> try to get a better pik

I too would like to see a better pic. It's hard to say from this one. With pregnancy, you would normally see her being wide, from side to side (both sides), not so much top to bottom. Also, she'd be growing over time. If this happened all at once, then that's a problem.

Given that it's a platy, pregnancy is very possible <g>...assuming of course it's female!

You may or may not easily fit a breeder net inside a bio orb, depending on it's size. Of course even if it did, it would likely cover much of the top, making it difficult for other inhabitants to surface for feeding (or breathing if any are labyrinth fish). It's less than ideal, but if you had another tank set up temporarily (small inside filter connected to air stone, or other small filter that fry could not be sucked into), that might help prevent the other fish from having a free live snack. Of course there would need to be lots of hiding spots, as mommy will also find the free feast a little too tempting to resist.

I have a few better pics, to clear things up.

The tank is a 60L biorb.

Stats

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5.0
PH - 7.8

In the second pic it is the fish which is front on

definitely pregnant. <lol> I doubt you could easily get a breeder in there. If you are hoping to save the fry from becoming a really great snack, you can try setting up some form of divider in the tank to isolate mommy. Or perhaps isolate mommy to another location. Either way, you'd need lot's of good hiding spots that the fry can find refuge.

Thanks for your help!

Any ideas how long before the babies come?

Thanks again.

It's hard to say. From the looks of her, it could be any time. With mine in the past, when they'd stopped swimming around (stayed in one place and/or targeted by other fish) it's generally been less than 24 hours. I'd often heard that they will dart around real quick when they are about to drop the fry, but I'd never seen that with mine. Mine tended to want to stay put in one place in her final hours b4 the big moment.

I have got a breeding net from local fish shop. I had a spare heater stand for the biorb and have set it up so it is to one side and everyone can be easily fed and can get too the top. I have put the female in as well.

It took will ages to catch here, she was very quick and nervous. She is settling down and i just have to wait.

Thanks to everyone for there help!

Gad to hear you were able to work something out

No sign of fry yet. I have noticed that the platy is pooing a lot. Is this normal?

all fish poop a fair amount. Fry may also be putting some pressure on her bowels

Lol. Just she has been pooing a lot more. she is starting to settle down in the bottom of the net, might not be long now.

She has given birth to about 30 fry but ate about 20. I have moved here into the main tank now. I was not sure when to move her but she has not had a fry for a good 30 mins and stopped shaking. Have I done the correct thing