First Time Fry

[brimon92]

I am new to this, my platy final giving birth. She has been in the breeder box for 2 hrs now (since 5:20pm Eastern) and she only dropped 4 fry. My questions are: how long does she stay in the breeder box? and the other question is, my fry moved from the mother to the bottom of the breeder box and they are not moving now. should i be concerned? My other question is how long can the fry stay in the breeder box before i move them to a tank for them to grow. I have another platy that is going to pop soon

 

[hughessomefish]

she wont have just 4 fry she will have around 17-25 about hummm i would say when (hard to exsplane)but when you get the total feeling shes flatten out and done poping

 

[brimon92]

so, when she doesnt look like a ball and the belly doesnt look like a square she is done, right?

btw, i did notice when 2 fry came out she automatically spun around and eat them, is that normal?

 

[Ben.M]

Yep it is quite normal, most livebearers eat their own fry, if you want to keep them then you will have to separate them from the adults.

 

[brimon92]

just to let you know she was in the breeder box and the fry that she had didnt survive.

i think she gave birth to early because some of them looked as if they were under developed.
btw she started to give birth to the fry when she was being chased by her mate that is when i moved her to the breeder box, in case i get told that i moved her to early.

I still have my other platys that is going to give birth in a week or so.
hopefully these will survive

 

[21rm]

First off congrats on the fry,
I remember my first batch, good times
U mentioned tat some looked underdeveloped? I know ive had fry that came out and seemed to still have the egg sac attached, but in the same batch there was good ones. best to just wait and see

 

[OldMan47]

One way to induce early fry drops is a method that you used, probably with the over-eager advice of beginners. That method is to cause lots of stress for the fish like you do when you chase a fish and put it in a breeder. It is even worse if you then leave bright lights on so that you can watch everything. Breeders have lots of fans but, as you can probably tell, I am not one. I will usually put my pregnant female into a densely planted birthing tank at least a week ahead of the drop so that the capture stress is all over before the female is far enough along to have a chance of an early birth. With lots of cover and no other predators in the tank, most of the fry will survive and thrive. Once I find the tank full of fry, often in the 20 to 30 range, I return the female to the main tank and let the fry start growing. A tank as small as 5 gallons can work for a birth tank.

 

[brimon92]

One way to induce early fry drops is a method that you used, probably with the over-eager advice of beginners. That method is to cause lots of stress for the fish like you do when you chase a fish and put it in a breeder. It is even worse if you then leave bright lights on so that you can watch everything. Breeders have lots of fans but, as you can probably tell, I am not one. I will usually put my pregnant female into a densely planted birthing tank at least a week ahead of the drop so that the capture stress is all over before the female is far enough along to have a chance of an early birth. With lots of cover and no other predators in the tank, most of the fry will survive and thrive. Once I find the tank full of fry, often in the 20 to 30 range, I return the female to the main tank and let the fry start growing. A tank as small as 5 gallons can work for a birth tank.

One thing, I wasn't over eager, I was watching her and I noticed that she had a black thing coming out of her and i waited until it came out I thought it was poop. But when I saw it, then i knew she was giving birth. She was being chased by her mate when she started to give birth. Some of her fry were swimming around before i went to bed and this morning they were lying there not moving and she was thin again. I waited until i left work and they still were not moving. She only popped out 1 in the actual tank and 3 that were living at the time and 4 still born and 2 underdeveloped ( one in egg sac and the other was just a head no body nor tail)