Is My Mickey Mouse Platy Preggers?

[danica1976]

Hello all! I am new to the forum & wanted to go introduce myself, but am having a platy crisis at the moment. Once it passes, I will do a proper introduction.

My female mickey mouse is preggers, I am almost positive. BUT, she was WAY more boxy a day or so ago & I could not get a separate breeding trap/tank until today (the weather here in the states was awful on the east coast). So I don't want to put her in it if she isn't going to drop, but she sure is acting weird & I have not seen any fry anywhere in the tank or filter. I know it is possible that they were all eaten, as I have her, a male mickey/wag tail?, a female sunburst (she is small yet, so don't think she is knocked up), and 3 green corydoras - so is it possible that they were all eaten before I got a chance to see them?

Here are the pics - does she look like she is ready to drop? Her white hole thing-y is open & she is swimming around quite strangely. If she is ready, how do I get her in the trap w/out completely freaking her out? I don't want to stress her! I am completely confused as what to do....

TIA!
-Elizabeth

[

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Danica.
The mickey mouse does look well along but may have a few days left to go. When she is very close she will probably hide a lot and may even hang out quietly somewhere in the tank. To catch her more easily, try putting a net loosely into the tank and going away for a while. When you come back feed the tank in the usual fashion. By then she will be largely ignoring the net until you start to move it. If you wait until she swims over the net you will have a good chance of netting her on the first try with minimal stress. She is probably far enough along that you will want to set up her breeding location in the next couple of days. There is a thread on this site, started by 5teady, that has pictures of livebearers at varying stages of pregnancy along with some hints on how to tell the stage. I have a link to it in my signature area called "ready to pop".

 

[danica1976]

Welcome to the forum Danica.
The mickey mouse does look well along but may have a few days left to go. When she is very close she will probably hide a lot and may even hang out quietly somewhere in the tank. To catch her more easily, try putting a net loosely into the tank and going away for a while. When you come back feed the tank in the usual fashion. By then she will be largely ignoring the net until you start to move it. If you wait until she swims over the net you will have a good chance of netting her on the first try with minimal stress. She is probably far enough along that you will want to set up her breeding location in the next couple of days. There is a thread on this site, started by 5teady, that has pictures of livebearers at varying stages of pregnancy along with some hints on how to tell the stage. I have a link to it in my signature area called "ready to pop".

Thanks so much for the reply OldMan (though I feel a bit weird calling you that, my DF is my old man! LOL). I especially needed the advice on getting my girl into the net, so thx a bunch for that info. She is definitely freakin' so I will try your method - I don't want to upset her any more than she already is. I have a feeling she is holding on to the babies, since the male won't lave her side for a second & maybe is preventing her from peacefully dropping the fry. But what do I know, this is my first attempt to keep her fry since the 1st time she gave birth they were all eaten I may go get some dense plants tomorrow from the LPS for the babies to hide in, in case she hates the trap.

So my next question is this? After she is in the net, how do I put her in the trap? I already have it floating in the tank, but I was trying to envision putting her in from the net & it seems like it is too small to "dump" her in w/o hurting her. Maybe I will get her in the net & then tilt the trap sideways and sort of scoop her...I dunno. Any tips on this?

TIA and thx again!

 

[OldMan47]

I don't use traps because I find them difficult to use. The one I have is much larger than what I see in stores but I just don't like the whole idea. I use a separate 10 gallon with lots of plants in it for most livebearers but when I do a molly, I figure that a well fed one won't eat fry. This is the result of that kind of thinking at 10 days.