Newbie Platy Fry Care Questions

Well it looks like any day my sunburst platy will burst with fry.

This is my first fish birth and I would like to make sure that the little guys/gals do well, I promised my daughters that I would try to save a couple of the fry from the Tiger Barbs clutches.

So...

1. I bought a breeding trap, when do I put mom into it? it's not the biggest on the market, but it fits nicely in my tank floating on the surface

2. How long after the mom pops out her fry should I move her back to the general population? I assume she will be tired/weak from the birth, do I keep her in the trap and feed her something?

3. Can I induce birth or premature birth from moving her too soon?

4. How long should I keep the fry in the trap until moving them into the general population? Like I said I want to save a couple for my girls to see grow, but my tank probably isn't big enough to take all the fry assuming that there is more than 5 (which I assume there will be)

I just put down a nice Java Moss covered slate (thank you Jimbooo for the instructions from your post in planted tanks) will the fry find their way to hide in there from the other fish in the tank?

5. What do I feed the fry, saw some fry food on the market, but is that really necessary?

6. What do I do with the extra fry that will surely clog my tank if they all grow to maturity? I am not a monster and don't think death by Tiger Barb is a fine way to enter the world, will a LFS take them off my hands (before I call a few, want to make sure I am not wasting my time)

Thanks for all the advice, and sorry if these answers are posted somewhere on the forum and I missed them.

*When the mum looks squarish it is time to move her in to the breeding trap
*When i see that the mother has no fry left in her i always move her back, they start swimming round the tank straight away
*I'm not too sure about this, to be honest i think that sometimes it does just happen and you can't help it, but also i think if she is stressed out so much then yes it could happen
*I always wait until my fry are around the inch mark, but i have my fry in a seperate tank, the java moss should do fine, but i would try and get a bit more, as they may not find their way there
*You do not have to buy fry food, you can just crush normal food such as flakes and freeze dried foods, so that it is powder
*Yes they will take them off you, and if you have enough they may give you free food

Thanks Amy

Would I be better off setting up a fry tank to house the little fellas? I am not sure if we will keep all of them but at least this way they would have a better chance of survival.

I have an older 3 gal(US) tank that was my starter tank, I have a spare heater, but my back up filter is pretty strong and would probably blow the fry around. Do they need a filter or can I pop in an airstone to circulate the h2o, and just gravel vac a lot? Concerned that w/o a filter it would get murky, but w/ the filter they would get spin cycled to death.

dsiegel13 said:

Thanks Amy

Would I be better off setting up a fry tank to house the little fellas? I am not sure if we will keep all of them but at least this way they would have a better chance of survival.

I have an older 3 gal(US) tank that was my starter tank, I have a spare heater, but my back up filter is pretty strong and would probably blow the fry around. Do they need a filter or can I pop in an airstone to circulate the h2o, and just gravel vac a lot? Concerned that w/o a filter it would get murky, but w/ the filter they would get spin cycled to death.

Click to expand...

*For mine i just have a 60l, with some floating plants in, there are also some shrimp growing up in there, so there are also some moss balls. It depends if you want to try and save all the fry or not, if you do then you will need another tank, as they have a lot of babies, and a breeder trap won't hold them.

*For a filter you could use a sponge/fry filter, the fry won't get sucked in to it, it oxygenates the water, and the fry won't be pushed around the tank. http/www.google.co...iw=1366&bih=613
You can either connect it to an air pump or a filter head, i use an air pump. They will need a filter, and a lot of water changes, as using powdered food can be messy. I have a clear bottom on mine/ no gravel, so that i can use the gravel cleaner quickly, as i can see all the mess, but also i won't catch any fry as i can see where they are.

*I keep the few fish that i like, and then give the rest to the shop, as i would like to save all of my fry as i don't like the thought of leaving them to be eaten. But it really does depend what you want to do.
If you don't want to set up another tank, you could just put lots of places in the tank for them to hide.

I think today is the day! She has secluded herself in the tank, normally she is very social.

Can I place her in the trap now, or should I wait for fry to drop, if I'm wrong and place her in trap early how long can she stay in there w/o supervision?

Here is how she looks today, don't see the fry eyes, but not sure if she is too dark coloring for that to happen.

My platy just had her babies- when she was secluding herself I turned the lights off so she wouldn't be bothered and about an hour later I went into the room and there were fry in the gravel and on the plants. I would put her in it now seeing as I probably lost around 10 fry by not putting her in the hatchery earlier. If she is secluding herself then I think she will be fine in it. Just be gentle putting her in it because if they stress too much they can dart around the tank and die. I used a net and coaxed her into the trap by just slowly bumping her into it. There are around 10 babies in the trap. (Trying to figure out what to do now)