I'm Officially Addicted!

[FrogGirl]

It's after 1am & I'm still up because my platy is giving birth. I don't want to leave her in the net the whole night because I'm afraid she'll start to eat the babies after a bit. I'm waiting another 30min or so & if after watching her for a few minutes I don't see her drop anymore she's going back in the tank. There are already a ton of fry in the net.

This is my 3rd batch of fry. About 3 wks ago I noticed my pregnant guppy seemed to be wanting to be left alone & trying to hide in the top corners of the tank but was being harassed even more than normal. I just had this feeling that she was going to be giving birth so I put her in a breeding net & when I thought to look in about an hour later there were a bunch of little fry in there. The next night I found 3 little black platy fry hiding up behind our heater so I put them in another net.

At that point we decided that it was time to get a small tank for the fry. Thankfully we just managed to finish getting it ready (transferred filter media & did a few other things to seed the tank & had some fish in there for a week, water kept coming back perfect) & moved the 28 guppies & platys into it. Then did a big water change & vacuum on our 100g since I am expecting another batch of guppies in the next few days.

I know I have at least another pregnant platy & swordtail too. I realize I'm going to be overflowing with babies soon (thank god we bought a 20g baby tank) but it's just soo cool. My husband is not happy that I am still up because of the fish lol but I just can't help it. I think part of it is that I'm almost 31wks pregnant myself. Plus I think it's awesome that 2 out of our 3 batches I just knew & put the mom in the net & within an hour babies were popping out

Good luck to everyone else! A few of my baby guppies are big enough that you can even see some color on their tails!

 

[Harlequins]

I remember that feeling when i kept livebearers

Its easier after the the first few drops,like you say,you tend to know exactly when she's going give birth. by the way she acts etc

Good luck with your fry

 

[FrogGirl]

Yes I was off a lot with the guppy at first but that day I was just pretty sure & there were the babies about an hour later. I'm still not positive which platy the 3 I found the next day came from but last night I just had this feeling it was time for this platy.

There are sooo many platy fry that we can't even begin to count them. Unfortunately we're down at least 2 from whatever the number was because my husband accidentally hit the netbreeder & knocked it loose. We kept most of them in it & I managed to catch at least 10. Unfortunately 1 got smooshed & a goby may have eaten another. It was after it for sure. Even though there are way more than we're going to know what to do with I feel bad. I spent at least 30min hunched over often up to my elbows in water trying to save them all.

Now if the every 28 day thing I read on guppies proves to be true I'm going to have more baby guppies tomorrow. I'm just hoping this batch is 20 or less. Otherwise around this time next week our 20g fry tank might have close to or more than 100 fry in it lol

 

[fidjet2]

Good luck =)

 

[Blubble37]

i would have just left her in the tank as she was - that way the fittest fry would have ssurvived and the rest eaten and therefore solving any sudden overstocking problems you are likely to encounter...

 

[FrogGirl]

I know, our original plan when we realized we had livebearers was to let nature take it's course & we just bought extra plants etc. Problem is that I'm a bit of a sucker in general & being pregnant myself I just couldn't help myself. I had to net the mother & then got all upset & couldn't rest last night until I had scoured the tank & caught all of the babies that got loose.