My emergency fry tank setup

Sooo…. I did a thing. I’ve been looking for a blue spotted platy for MONTHS and my LFS got some in a week or so ago. I only found out that they had them on Friday.
My mom took me in on Saturday and there was only one female left. I definitely didn’t want a male because I have all females already.
Now, my 10g quarantine tank is currently home to 27 fry from two of my other females, so I didn’t have a great place to put her. Friday night I put some dechlorinated and tank water in a 5g bucket with a bubbler, heater, and spare filter with a mature filter pad from the 10g. This would have worked great, if the only female the store had wasn’t heavily gravid. She looks like she will pop in the next day. Because I wanted to save some of her fry (she’s a beautiful fish), the bucket wasn’t going to work. It was too deep, and the substrate blended in with the bucket itself so I wouldn’t be able to see the fry anyway.
I decided to temporarily move her into a one gallon and set up some dividers, a hut, and a tilted slatted piece from a breeder box. This effectively almost blocked off the entire bottom half of the tank, with small gaps to allow fry to slip through. She has the whole top half and house to swim and hide in. There’s also a heater and a bubbler. She’s so big and her gravid spot is so dark with fry eyes I expect she won’t be in it for more than a day. I know it’s not the best situation, but I’ve been looking for a fish like her for months, and my LFS didn’t know if/when they would get more in sooo. Here we are.
Her name is Ellie, after Carls wife from the Disney movie Up. I call her mama Ellie with the big belly

I would do the exact same thing if I found a guppy with the blue coloration I'm looking for! They are never in the store.
I love that you figured out a do it yourself temporary setup The only thing it's missing is duct tape

Salt said:

I would do the exact same thing if I found a guppy with the blue coloration I'm looking for! They are never in the store.
I love that you figured out a do it yourself temporary setup The only thing it's missing is duct tape

Click to expand...

what type?
i wish i could send u one
i have blue moscow dumbo mosaic females
(i kno that is what happens with mutt guppy tank)

Some better pics of Ellie. Still no sign of fry yet.

The countdown continues! It’s now been almost 24 hours since she went in the 1g. I did a tiny water change with a cup and mature water from one of my tanks just to try to keep the ammonia down. I’m concerned about her having babies in the middle of the night and getting under the plastic slat piece and just having a feast and totally destroying all of them

Well, it still might take more days before she'll drop fry. They can become bigger than this. Not all platies will eat their fry. Just try to put something floating in there to assure hiding spots for the fry in case she will try to eat them.