Crooked Fry

[ace61502]

As my lil platies are getting bigger, I've noticed some a few of them are a little, well, off. It looks kinda like the tail is growing out from the belly instead of the back, giving them a camel look. It also only seems to be the ones with a "sunburst" coloration and not the red wag babies. The parents are red wags but I wasn't surprised to see non-red babies, or non-wag, either, for that matter, I know how genetically unpredictable they are.

Anyway, I'm guessing I should not let them breed, so I should euthanize? Feed them to the big fish?

Also, in a tank with juvenile clown loaches, emerald cory cats, platies and zebra danios (normal and Glo), what's the absolute minimum size I should let them grow to before transferring? I've got one I think is pretty close, but I'm nervous. LOL I'm pretty sure the danios couldn't eat her, but the platies I still wonder about. Their mouths seem rather big for their size. The loaches I've read won't bother fry, how about cories?

 

[OldMan47]

Red wag platies breed true, they do not drop other colors unless you breed them with something besides another red wag. The results of such crosses would not necessarily breed true though. It sounds like you had an inferior parent male that is giving you the poor fry. I would definitely not allow those distorted fish to breed. Maybe it is time to move them into the adult tank and allow them to be removed by the other fish.
With zebra danios in the tank, I would not try to release any fry that were not at least 1.5 cm long, not counting the tail fin. That means that overall you are looking at about 2 cm fish. If the loaches are large, you may need to wait even longer. Clown loaches can grow to several inches long.

 

[ace61502]

Red wag platies breed true, they do not drop other colors unless you breed them with something besides another red wag. The results of such crosses would not necessarily breed true though. It sounds like you had an inferior parent male that is giving you the poor fry. I would definitely not allow those distorted fish to breed. Maybe it is time to move them into the adult tank and allow them to be removed by the other fish.
With zebra danios in the tank, I would not try to release any fry that were not at least 1.5 cm long, not counting the tail fin. That means that overall you are looking at about 2 cm fish. If the loaches are large, you may need to wait even longer. Clown loaches can grow to several inches long.

Thanks. I'll put the deformed babies in the big tank and let nature take its course on them. If any survive I'll euthanize before they get too big.

If my girls were bred with anything other than a red wag, it happened before I got them, or they aren't "purebred" red wags. I'm ok with that. Once I get my 38 gallon up and running again I'm determined to get some of those blue wags, too. They seem to be pretty hard to find, though.

As for my one super-sized fry (she is SO much bigger than all the other fry) I think I'll err on the side of caution. She (she definitely still has a triangular anal fin at this point, assuming it would have changed by now?) is quite pretty and I don't want to lose her. She's almost as big as the smallest GloFish, all of which are considerably smaller than the regular Zebras. (Is that normal?) I've had them all since early last fall, though they weren't together in the same tank until a couple of months ago. Anyway, I'll wait until she's as big as they are. I've got a 2nd 10 gallon tank cycling so I can start separating the fry as they get bigger and need more space (and as more are born!).

 

[ace61502]

Meant to mention that the loaches are still mere babes themselves. @3" each.

 

[OldMan47]

Glo-fish are zebras with a gene inserted into their DNA to bring out the colors we see. They breed just like zebras and grow to the same size.
As usual, fish shops sell fish that are far from adults, so a size difference is nothing too surprising.