Boggles My Mind

Hi Everyone. With my first post "My Platy" you'd learned that my platy did drop her frys. And all is great with them cute, adorable frys. Now, for this post it's about the frys, or more like the one fry. I always checked on them everyday and every few times a day really and this morning in my fry divider I found a newly born fry as in 1 day old. It boggles my mind because the divider is tight against the glass, same as the bottom covered with pebbles. Now, my husband think the other platy must have drop last night(which is amazing since she didn't look ready)& survival of the fittest one got through the divider & the rest got eaten. The rest of the frys are a short 2 weeks old, so the little one is ok there..no frys eats frys. So, how flexible is the body of a fry..flexible enough to squeezed through tight spaces?

If you have decent sized pebbles on the tank bottom, you may well find a lot more fry hiding among them. Platy fry tend to seek a hiding spot almost as soon as they are dropped so you might find a lot more fry in there. Fish have been dropping fry for many thousands of years and have had some survive each time with no help from us, so having a survivor is not too surprising.

Ok, so the fry might have came through the pebbles under the bottom of the divider. Tomorrow is water change schedule I might catch them new frys when I do vacuumimg the floor. Thanks Oldman47.
BTW, when you vacuum and the frys get stuck when the pebbles fall can they wiggle out or they die buried? You see I'm waiting for the first fry batch to be 2 weeks (I see them better being bigger) before I will clean their side of the tank, which is approximately tomorrow. So, I've no idea what happens if I accidentally suck the new fry with the pebbles.
What are the ways which is more viable & safe to do when cleaning tank with frys less than 2 weeks old?

Yesterday I took the lid off of the external filter and found fry in there. Must have been from last weeks drop, they are now in another tank with the rest of the batch!

anah2467 said:

Ok, so the fry might have came through the pebbles under the bottom of the divider. Tomorrow is water change schedule I might catch them new frys when I do vacuumimg the floor. Thanks Oldman47.
BTW, when you vacuum and the frys get stuck when the pebbles fall can they wiggle out or they die buried? You see I'm waiting for the first fry batch to be 2 weeks (I see them better being bigger) before I will clean their side of the tank, which is approximately tomorrow. So, I've no idea what happens if I accidentally suck the new fry with the pebbles.
What are the ways which is more viable & safe to do when cleaning tank with frys less than 2 weeks old?

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Don't bother trying to clean the gravel too much if you have very tiny fry (the plural of 'fry' is 'fry', btw, not 'frys' ) Lots and lots of small water changes is more important than a pristine tank.
I stick the end of my syphon into the gravel so I don't suck any up but just leave it in one place. You're quite likey to injure fry if they get mixed up with the pebbles!

fluttermoth said:

anah2467 said:

Ok, so the fry might have came through the pebbles under the bottom of the divider. Tomorrow is water change schedule I might catch them new frys when I do vacuumimg the floor. Thanks Oldman47.
BTW, when you vacuum and the frys get stuck when the pebbles fall can they wiggle out or they die buried? You see I'm waiting for the first fry batch to be 2 weeks (I see them better being bigger) before I will clean their side of the tank, which is approximately tomorrow. So, I've no idea what happens if I accidentally suck the new fry with the pebbles.
What are the ways which is more viable & safe to do when cleaning tank with frys less than 2 weeks old?

Click to expand...

Don't bother trying to clean the gravel too much if you have very tiny fry (the plural of 'fry' is 'fry', btw, not 'frys' ) Lots and lots of small water changes is more important than a pristine tank.
I stick the end of my syphon into the gravel so I don't suck any up but just leave it in one place. You're quite likey to injure fry if they get mixed up with the pebbles!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction...fry is a baby fish, plural would be a brood or group of fry..."my" version frys for short I need to clean the gravel since I haven't touch their side of the tank for more than 2 weeks. I can see visibly on top left over foods. I will have to be careful that I know of, that's why I waited for them first batch of fry to be bigger. I will have to take my chance on that lone fry that got mixed with the 2-wk batch.

Ah, well, in that case, you'll just have to go very slowly and carefully!
I still wouldn't go too mad with the gravel cleaner; just slowly skim over the surface to get the uneaten food. Best of luck!

If I see any fry in my siphon I just pinch off the flow and let the gravel fall back out of the siphon. After that I patiently wait for the fry to swim out of the tube. If you use a white bucket for the waste water you can see the fry that take a ride through the siphon and net them back into the tank. It seems that there is always that one fry that is trying to escape and is using the siphon as a path.

Hi Everyone! Thank you for all the tips and advise. I ended up netting them 8 - 2wk old and the lone fry and placing them temporarily in the breeder tank. Whew! I was anxious, careful handling all the fry...so small! I thought I'd miss the lone fry but it swam up & I was able to see the little one. Had to be done this way because their divider space was cramp plus I had to replace the aerator to a sponge filter on their side. Glad I only had to net them once and just tilted the trap and they swam back like nothing happened. Now they're happy with a sponge filter there and I feel much better with that set-up. I didn't find any new fry on the adult side of my tank, that lone fry was one tough, lucky platy.