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mtv8dmarine

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I tried to take a pic of one of my platies and a video of her too. The pics just don't turn out with the constant movement. My tank is just getting over ich...about 3 days left of high temps to complete the 10 total.

I've never seen a live birth before in my aquarium. She doesn't have a gravid spot which from everything I've read isn't unheard of in platies. She does tend to be a bit anti-social the past few days and hangs out in the corner by my heater. Within the past day or so she's been settling down to the bottom of the tank in that corner from time to time which I understand female platies to gravitate more towards the substrate as they get closer to giving birth. The other platies seem to sense something is up because they loiter around her more as if expecting something. Some even nudging her and almost what seems like smelling her posterior. She doesn't have a squared off back end either as far as I know what I'm looking for.

Any ideas? She's been big for between a week and two weeks. I know their gestation period is 4 but can't account for how long she has been pregnant (if that's the case). Any ideas from those more experienced?

Thanks!

The video link in here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AmU6XLsMK4
 
platties don't always show a black spot (gravid spot) and hearing what you have said about being anti-social sounds a lot like her being either stressed/ill or indeed pregnant. she will rest more at the bottom finding a good planted area to give birth to her lot of babies, the other platties are probably waiting their to eat the babies when she gives birth to them, they are nasty like that lol. if she hasn't squared off yet then she should have a little while to go till she decided to give birth. I suggest when she shows a gravid spot or squares off to put her in a breeding tank or breeding trap/net. might sound like a silly Question, but you do have a male within the tank ?
 
mtv8dmarine said:
Kieren_1992 said:
platties don't always show a black spot (gravid spot) and hearing what you have said about being anti-social sounds a lot like her being either stressed/ill or indeed pregnant. she will rest more at the bottom finding a good planted area to give birth to her lot of babies, the other platties are probably waiting their to eat the babies when she gives birth to them, they are nasty like that lol. if she hasn't squared off yet then she should have a little while to go till she decided to give birth. I suggest when she shows a gravid spot or squares off to put her in a breeding tank or breeding trap/net. might sound like a silly Question, but you do have a male within the tank ?

pregnantplaty.jpg

Yes there are two males and a few other females. Before ich I had about 10 platies total. I'm down to 5 now. I may go to Petsmart tonight and see about getting a breeding net. She's not choosing the most planted area to rest by any means. Judging by my video and her described behavior, do you have any idea how far along she might be?

I just got back and put her in a breeding thing. It made taking a pic much easier. Unfortunately, you can't see her bulging belly...just that it hangs a little low.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
She is nearing full term based on that picture. I do not use size but instead use shape to judge the common livebearers. She is becoming nicely squared off in that picture.

PS: I extracted your messed up post so the thread reads a bit better.
 
OldMan47 said:
She is nearing full term based on that picture. I do not use size but instead use shape to judge the common livebearers. She is becoming nicely squared off in that picture.

PS: I extracted your messed up post so the thread reads a bit better.
Click to expand...

Thank you OM47. Some forums let you delete posts you author, others don't. I have her in the breeding box and will monitor her. I know I'm not supposed to keep her in there for longer than 48 hours. So I'm guessing she'll give birth in that time frame. Which will be nice to replace my lost Platy stock due to the ich I've resolved. I've turned out the lights on the that side of the aquarium in case she pops tonight before normal lights out.

Any idea based on her behavior and images if she's going to drop within 48 hours or sometime later? I don't want to keep her caged and stressed if she doesn't need to be yet.

She has refused to eat today so far by the way.
 
usually they eat ravenously just before they drop. but some don't there are always exceptions to the rule. ps. 10 day high temp, doesn't always get rid of Ich...you will need to monitor their behaviour to know for definate if its all gone...mine wasn't gone in a month and i lost my whole tank including fry.
on a better note, what you originally describe does sound like shes ready, and others will hang around the posterior to cannabalise the fry...which is horrid Iknow, I lost a whole drop to that, then realised and got 40+ fry after trapping her...
good luck with the drop. you may need to blackout the tank, by putting a dark cover over her, and monitor her regularly, good luck
 
I noticed a white tube on her posterior that had opened up. I thought she might drop last night but she didn't so I let her out of the breeder since it's been about 48 hours since I put her in. I'm going to be gone all day so I hope she doesn't pop until I'm back. For all I know that white tube that has started to protrude and open is not what think lol. She has chosen the densest part of the tank now to linger in.

On the ich note, yeah I'm hoping it's done with. None of the fish are rubbing against anything. The platies are darting around chasing their mates, stepping in between mating attempts of others, generally being curious about the pregnant one. The corys are normal and my angelfish are curious as normal about everything outside the tank.

Do livebearing fish typically wait until the tank is dark before birthing? If so, would it be wise to just put her in the breeder at night?
 
It would be wise to separate the female from the angel or expect to have few survivors if any. Angels are very good predators of things as large as adult neon tetras.
I am always unable to accurately predict the time of a drop. It is one reason that females, where I want the fry, get placed into a separate tank to drop their fry.
 
LilyRose Tank said:
usually they eat ravenously just before they drop. but some don't there are always exceptions to the rule. ps. 10 day high temp, doesn't always get rid of Ich...you will need to monitor their behaviour to know for definate if its all gone...mine wasn't gone in a month and i lost my whole tank including fry.
on a better note, what you originally describe does sound like shes ready, and others will hang around the posterior to cannabalise the fry...which is horrid Iknow, I lost a whole drop to that, then realised and got 40+ fry after trapping her...
good luck with the drop. you may need to blackout the tank, by putting a dark cover over her, and monitor her regularly, good luck
Click to expand...


Sure enough, the ich seemed to reappear. I had to isolate my blue crayfish into a holding tank and am forced to use chemicals this time...something I was hoping I wouldn't have to do. I'm hoping the chemicals don't have any negative affects on the pregnancy. =(
 
I find that combating ich can be done fairly safely using nothing but salt and elevated temperatures. In order to be successful, you need to treat for several days after all signs of the disease are gone from every fish in the tank. There is a link in my signature area to a good location for advice and information on ich treatments. As rare as ich is in my tanks, I have only used this method once since getting back into the hobby.It was 100% successful with no fish losses. When I was in the hobby as a young man, I used lots of special medications to treat ich, spent many times as much money to buy the treatments, and had terrible success with both losing fish and with keeping my tank free of ich after the initial infestation. Ich is a serious infestation and must be dealt with decisively or you will lose fish.
The impact of these parasites on fry is simple. The parasite reaches the same size on a newborn fry or a foot long pleco. On the fry, a very few of the parasites can be enough to cause a fatal infestation while on the huge pleco it will hardly affect them at all. Treatment, immediate and effective, is your fry's only chance right now.
 
OldMan47 said:
I find that combating ich can be done fairly safely using nothing but salt and elevated temperatures. In order to be successful, you need to treat for several days after all signs of the disease are gone from every fish in the tank. There is a link in my signature area to a good location for advice and information on ich treatments. As rare as ich is in my tanks, I have only used this method once since getting back into the hobby.It was 100% successful with no fish losses. When I was in the hobby as a young man, I used lots of special medications to treat ich, spent many times as much money to buy the treatments, and had terrible success with both losing fish and with keeping my tank free of ich after the initial infestation. Ich is a serious infestation and must be dealt with decisively or you will lose fish.
The impact of these parasites on fry is simple. The parasite reaches the same size on a newborn fry or a foot long pleco. On the fry, a very few of the parasites can be enough to cause a fatal infestation while on the huge pleco it will hardly affect them at all. Treatment, immediate and effective, is your fry's only chance right now.
Click to expand...


Yeah I tried the high temp and salt. I didn't see any signs of ich after 4 days of treatment so I cut the temps back down and one of my swordtails looked to have gotten another granular attachment and settled to the dark quiet corner of the tank. All other fish behaved as normal. I've already lost half my platy population and with an expectant mother, action had to be quick.

On a side note, she hasn't given birth yet. She still eats and tries to isolate herself from the others by hiding in the denser plants or up near the corners located around the heaters. I watch her daily to try and determine when I need to put her in the little hanging breeder box. I can see more of a white tube protrusion today than yesterday around her anal area. How stressful/bad is it on her to put her in the breeder box hanging in the tank until she gives birth?
 
That swordtail that still showed symptoms is the source of your next infestation. All fish must be free of any marks at all for several days before you can safely back off. Otherwise, the ich parasite has a launching point for the next infestation. Please read through that linked topic as it explains things in great detail, including the full life cycle of the parasite we are trying to interrupt.
 
OldMan47 said:
That swordtail that still showed symptoms is the source of your next infestation. All fish must be free of any marks at all for several days before you can safely back off. Otherwise, the ich parasite has a launching point for the next infestation. Please read through that linked topic as it explains things in great detail, including the full life cycle of the parasite we are trying to interrupt.
Click to expand...

All fish were visibly clear of it for a number of days before I reduced temps to normal. =) I'm inclined to agree with you that that fish is the culprit and it's infestation was reduced to something that I wasn't able to see. Perhaps it was just to one unfortunately chosen by the hatched parasite? The swordtail was the indicator after a couple days of normalcy that the parasite still was not eradicated which prompted continued current treatment. I read and reread your link during the visible infestation as well as others that mirrored the truths and fallacies of dealing with it. Thankfully, I was never misguided on how best to treat it since I don't like treating things with harsh chemicals unless it's a last resort.

Thank you for your continued insight and knowledge of both the ich and my pregnant platy. I really do appreciate it! =)
 
I just got home and looked in the breeder tank. It looks like I have 1 fry and a whole bunch of white stuff. One little white ball and the other white stuff is just flat looking. She is still pretty big...how long does it take for them to complete birthing?
 
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