Hi, New To The Hobby And Need Help

[welshie]

Hi all, im new to fish keeping and really want to succeed in keeping healthy gorgeous tropical fish. In my tank i have 2 platys a dwarf gourami 2 danios and a plec. Ive had them all for over 2 months and about a month ago my two platys and 1 gold danio got quite fat. The danio unfortunately has swim bladder issues and is currently being treated for that. I assumed the platys were the same so put them in the tank with the danio. The danio is yet to recover (not looking good) but the platys seem fine.(they never went funny just fat) They swim eat and poop a hell of alot which made me think they were fat so i fasted them for 2 days fed them on 3rd day and fasted them again for 2 more days....no change in size so im left thinking its pregnant but im sure i have 2 females and if they were bought pregnant surley they would of spawned by now (its been over 2months since i bought them) they were also treated for internal parasites/bacterial infection when first bought as they were acting really strange not eating or swimming just sitting near heater at water surface really lathargic and almost transparent. Sorry this is like an essay im new to all this and just wanna help my poor fishies. (p.s how do you add photos)

 

[ShinySideUp]

Before anyone else says it:
 
What temperature are you running the tank at?
What size is your tank?
What are water statistics for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?
Did you cycle your filter (make it able to cope with fish waste) before adding fish?
 
A lot of questions I know but without answers neither we, nor you, will be able to help your fish.

 

[welshie]

Tank temp is 26-27°c, size is 65ltrs approx (70ltr tank) ammonia is 0 nitrite 0 nitrate between 40-80ppm (due a water change on thursday(API LIQUID MASTER TEST) and yeah i cycles it with api stress zyme and king british filter aid+. I always add de-chlorinater and stress zyme every water change. I have a fluval u3 (110ltr/h) filter with biomax

 

[welshie]

 

[the_lock_man]

The thing with livebearers is that they have the ability to store sperm packets, and use them for further fry-drops for about 6 months or so. Your females may well have dropped their fry, probably eaten them, and then started all over again. The photos certainly look like gravid females.

 

[welshie]

Thanks. I'll try put her in the breeder for a day or 2. Hopefully they be ok. If anything i think my dwarf powder blue gourami would be eating them. He eats everything including snails haha

 

[the_lock_man]

I'm not a huge fan of breeder boxes. They tend to be small, and therefore stress the fish out, and this can cause issues with dropping fry, and occasionally even death of the fish.
 
You'll probably find that all your fish, including the female platies, will have eaten the fry. Livebearers tend to be rather bad parents, they rely on quantity of fry, rather than quality of rearing, to procreate the species. They are very likely to have eaten their own fry.
 
If you do put the female in a breeder box, what are you going to do with the fry? Do you have space in your tank for potentially 30 new fish? Remember that in 3 or 4 months time, these fish will have reached breeding age themselves, and your problem will be increasing exponentially. Not many LFS will take platy fry, trying to sell them on Gumtree is hit and miss.
 
I always recommend people to let nature take its course, and allow the fry to be predated. You may well find that you get a few fry reaching maturity, but you don't become overrun.

 

[welshie]

Yeah i have a seperate 30ltr tank which i was gonna put her in to breed then remove her when fry are dropped

 

[the_lock_man]

30l is fine, no issues with that. You may well find that she will eat some of her fry before you can remove her, which will help your situation, but I still warn you about trying to save as many as you can. 
 
We get a lot of people saying "Oh, I can't let the babies die, that would be inhumane." Well, yeah, no actually, they're not human, they're not even mammals, they're fish, they operate a completely different way, and we shouldn't project our mammalian instincts onto them. The fish don't care if their offspring live or die, and neither should we. There are some quite serious consequences if we do.

 

[welshie]

I understand what your saying mate. The last thing i need is a 100+platys swimming around. Depending on how many fry i get i might save some and let the rest fight for survival. I have to save at least 1 to keep the missus off my back haha. When do the fry start showing there colours coz if its soon enough i will save the better coloured ones and either flog the rest or let them become food

 

[the_lock_man]

Colouration comes after a few months, when they're big enough to survive.

 

[welshie]

Can they mate by this time or are they still to young?

 

[the_lock_man]

Generally, they can mate. Sometimes they can mate before it's obvious which are males and which are females.

 

[welshie]

Oh. Trying to keep the better ones could be a bad idea then because by the time i sex them and choose colours they could already be pregnant...

 

[welshie]

Happy new year everyone! Quick question lol. My platy gave birth!! Only a few fry tho maybe 5 max 8 and she still looks pregnant? Will she drop all her fry at once or will she drop them in small batches over the next few nights? She looks massive still and still has a large dark gravid spot bigger than in the above pictures