How Can I Really Tell When My Pally Is Gunna Drop Fry

[TheDood326]

recently i have been interseted in livebearing fish ever since my sunburst platy all of the sudden started plopping out babies i was so suprised and hopped right on the forum
I now have 7 fry in a 5 gallon fry tank (filter sucker covered by net), 6 are a week old, and 1 is 2 weeks old (im feeding them "first bites")

i have recently changed my tank setup to a platy tank with 2 males and 6 females (along with a small pleco) every day i look at every fish and observe their mood and movement, today i noticed that my high-fin tuxedo platy looked a little fat ( a little more round around the tummy) in most of my platys i dont worry about getting out the Momma-Fry-Seperator thing until i see the black spot behind their belly, but with my tuxedo platy it is black around its belly and its immpossible to see that black spot, she is acting very shy but that is her normal nature

Any Easier ways to tell if they are preggers???
platy breeding tips would be highly apriciated

Thanks everyone,
Tripp

 

[OldMan47]

You might try looking through this thread where 5teady posted pictures of different stages of pregnancy. [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=253113"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=253113[/URL] It is not an unusual question in the livebearer section, I think it is the most common question, so that is why the thread to help figure it out yourself exists.

 

[jonnyf84]

as above, the thread will be very useful. Thats a very low number of fry (unless your platys are juveniles), you must have a very open tank or a overstocked one, to have more success plant heavily around one corner - this will meen you won't have to use a breeding trap either as the females will seek the quietest most private part of the tank to give birth. i've never found much need to put a net over the filter unless it is very powerful. No need to splash the cash on the fry food, platy fry are tough little suckers, they'l live happily on crushed flake food until they are a couple of weeks old and can then start munching on larger foods (baby brine, tubilflex etc).

Good look and have fun breeding, remember you will be overloaded with fish before you know it, i hope you have more tanks as most lfs' won't take platys until they are at least a inch long which take at least 6 weeks and by that time your females would have given birth again.

 

[LauraFrog]

The gravid spot is not a good indicator in platies, some of mine show it all the time and some never show it, I have a platy that is mostly white and she never shows it but drops fry every month without fail. It's only an accurate predictor of pregnancy in guppies.

The easiest way is to find out when she drops (ie when she suddenly goes skinny) and then wait 25 days. Now start watching her very closely for what's mentioned in 5teady's thread - the anal tube opening, loss of appetite, aggression, hiding, squaring off. The average pregnancy length is approx 1 month. There's not much that beats newborn livebearer fry for cuteness IMO. They're just adorable arent' they!

The fry won't last long on first bites if you don't give them something bigger when they start to grow. They are born very developed so first bites and other liquid foods, if you use them, are only suitable for the first two weeks tops. I feed mine granules and crushed flakes. They can eat whatever their parents eat if you mush it up enough.