How Long In The Breeding Trap

[Sunam]

Our Mickey Mouse platy is so huge that it almost looks like she can't swim straight. Instead of being really still, it's like she's on crack. She has the white spot down yonder and while she moves about a bunch, she isn't eating anything. I'm guessing she's about to drop? If so, how long can I put her in the breeding trap to watch or should I wait until she slows down?

(We also added new fish yesterday so maybe that's just freaking her out??)

Any help would be appreciated! My son (4) is dying to see a fish drop fry and has been begging since we got the tank (6 months) to put a fish in the trap LOL

 

[OldMan47]

Trapping the fish will not help her drop fry, that will happen whether or not you trap her. My personal prejudice is to not use traps but many people swear by them. Most who use breeding traps advise against using one for longer than 48 hours. What that means is you cause the fish some stress catching them and trapping them. If you guessed wrong about the stage of readiness, you get to repeat it a few times before the actual drop. I try to move my fish to a drop tank, call it a delivery room, about a week before the drop. If I am off by a couple of days, no harm is done. A drop tank should be well supplied with cover not because you want to watch the drop, but because you may miss it and still want to see the resulting fry.

 

[Battersea]

Watch that white spot and wait till its looks bigger and opens up into a tube shape. If shes a bit of a skittish fish, i recomend maybe gettn a small tank with plants! otherwise, take her out as soon you see shes done in the trap! I wouldn't want to put too much stress on her :] Good luck!

 

[Sunam]

Ii'm with both of you on not wanting to stress her. An additional tank isn't an option right now but just hoping to make it an educational experience (my son can already identify males and females, has gotten pretty good at identifying various types of fish and knows which ones are cold or tropical/livebearers or egg layers) I know that putting her in there won't make her drop fry--that's why I want to time it right so that it isn't an unnecessarily stressful situation which could be, in fact, counterproductive.

The white spot is larger this afternoon than when we left this morning and since its more likely to happen at night, I wanted to wait until the afternoon to do it. We might try it tonight or wait until tomorrow and try it tomorrow night. I just don't want to miss it!

Thanks for the input. I had done some searches and found the 48 hour thing but still wasn't sure about the activity level. She's back at the top today trying to feed with the others when I get close to the tank so might be worth waiting another day.

Thanks again!
Rachel

Watch that white spot and wait till its looks bigger and opens up into a tube shape. If shes a bit of a skittish fish, i recomend maybe gettn a small tank with plants! otherwise, take her out as soon you see shes done in the trap! I wouldn't want to put too much stress on her :] Good luck!

 

[leeandstacie]

Guppies are the only livebearer fish I have kept and have bred them quite a few times now but have found that they dont eat their fry and they are fine in your normal tank if they have hiding places and without other fish that do eat the fry - I thought mollies were the same but Im sure someone will correct me if what I say is wrong
Cheers

 

[OldMan47]

I find mollies are very easy going when it comes to eating their own fry but a community tank is a poor place for a fry drop to happen unless the tank is like my 40 breeder that I use for my Xenotaenia resolanae. That tank has so many plants that you would have survivors no matter how many predators were in the tank. This is my big girl with her fry a few hours after the drop. I still have the fry today although I left her with the fry for almost 2 months after the drop.

 

[leeandstacie]

I find mollies are very easy going when it comes to eating their own fry but a community tank is a poor place for a fry drop

I was supposed to say not a community tank

OLDMAN47 - you are a legend and you helped me through my first guppy pregnancy and now I have had stacks of guppy fry ( species only tank though )