Grrrr.. 1 month old platies do eat new borns!

[yhbae]

This time, I left 1 month old (3 weeks then) fries in my breeding tank and added the female platy expecting to give birth in a week.

Came back from work this afternoon and found few dead new borns, torn in pieces... I lifted the large java moss and NOTHING! I looked at the four 1/2 inch 1 month old platies and they are all fat! They only get that fat when I feed them baby brine shrimps - never reach to that level if I only feed them flakes. So its obvious that the little sisters (only females) ate the new borns... Grrr...

Next time, I will move every one of those litte ones out of the breeding tank!

 

[guppymonkey]

I guess your fry must have grown pretty quickly! My guppy fry are a month old and I just added the few fry I found from the latest drop and they pretty much leave the newbies alone. But platy fry are a lot bigger than guppy fry.

 

[yhbae]

They are about 1/2 inches long but quite fat. I still feed them baby brine shrimps about 4 days per week (flakes for the remaining weeks) - perhaps that is letting them grow faster? My 2 month old fries are now over 1 inches long, looks just like the adult one except smaller...

I'm thinking of setting up a 10g just for 4 platies (1 male, 3 females) with tonnes of java moss and simply take the survived ones out after 3 weeks into the bigger tank... Has anyone tried this approach?

(As you can see, I am trying to see if I can fund my (expensive!) hobby expense by raising platies... My LFS is willing to accept almost grown up fries at 1/3 of their cost. They charge $4CA each...)

 

[guppymonkey]

You're lucky if your local store will buy your fry. I asked my petsmart and they said they would only buy them from a distributor. I think one of the best ways to breed livebearers is to just put the female into her own tank when she is pregnant and take her out as soon as you see the fry. That way you can save the largest number of them. Thats only if you want to sell them. If you are breeding for certain traits its easier (in my opinion) to keep the fry in an empty tank. That way you can separate out the good ones from the puny ones and keep certain traits strong.

 

[yhbae]

You're lucky if your local store will buy your fry. I asked my petsmart and they said they would only buy them from a distributor. I think one of the best ways to breed livebearers is to just put the female into her own tank when she is pregnant and take her out as soon as you see the fry. That way you can save the largest number of them. Thats only if you want to sell them. If you are breeding for certain traits its easier (in my opinion) to keep the fry in an empty tank. That way you can separate out the good ones from the puny ones and keep certain traits strong.

This is exactly what I was trying to do - the only thing I neglected was that I didn't expect 4 weeks old fries to eat the just-born ones!

I didn't expect this store to buy back platy fries... It's not a big chain store but they do have about 4 of them in Montreal area, and it is very popular - they sell all of their fishes very quickly. Did I mention this is for a store credit and not for cash?

I'm gonna try something different this time around. I'll setup a 10g FULL of java moss. I'll add one male and 3 females then let the nature take its course. I'll transfer any fries that manages to survive past the first 2 weeks. This way, I don't have to watch every 10 mins when I am back home... (I was doing this, seriously!)

What do you think?

 

[canis_lupus]

should work with all that java moss! i have a 10 gal rigth now with 3 platy fry and 2 guppy fry...it really helps the growing if they r in a big tank as my platies r only a week old and getting really fat! and i don't even feed em....(they're 2 scared to go to the surface and the guppies eat all the food) my ottos leave them alone 2......if u really like breeding them then i would totaly say go with a tenner for the fry and the parents like u said.......it should work

 

[yhbae]

Great! - that is what I will try then. As soon as they are 2 weeks old or so, I'll transfer them to the 33g (which is currently empty). This should give them enough room to grow fast...