Is My Platy Pregnant? And Other Questions...

[Candee]

Hello. I am new to this forum and have a few questions. I have read through many many posts and have already obtained tons of info. Thank you to everyone and for this great website.

About my aquarium: I have had a 10 gallon aquarium for about 5 months. I have 2 zebra danios, 2 guppies, 2 algea eaters and on March 7th I added 2 Hi Fin Platys and a baby platy. I got the platy's from PetSmart. They were in a tank with about a million other platy's. In fact when I got them the lady asked if I wanted a little baby she saw in there as she was scooping up the fish. I said sure... so I brought the little guy home too. He was only about 1/2" long. Not sure how old he was but the lady was shocked that he had even survived in there. Little guy is doing great... hides alot and also eats alot. I think he thinks he is a guppy because when he swims around... he is always following what the guppies do and where they go. He is so cute. I test the water often and it is always good. The water temp is always around 74 and I dont use a heater. I also have a 20 gallon tank with 5 goldfish that I have had for about 1 year.

Now for my questions:

1) Is my orange/black Hi Fin Platy pregnant? (see pictures- I hope I could figure out how to post thie pics) It has gotten to have a way bigger belly than the yellow platy I have. Like I mentioned earlier... I got them from PetSmart (ugh!) on March 7th. She is eating normal... and is very active. Lately she has been down lower towards the bottom of the tank more and my other yellow platy follows her around like he is trying to smell her butt. A few hours ago she had a long 1"-2" white string hanging out of her that looked like spiderweb. It fell off. I'd never seen that before.

If my Platy is prego.... here are my next set of questions:

2) How far along would you guess her to be?

3) I have an extra 6 gallon Eclipse system tank but it is totally empty... not cycled. Not sure if I have enough time to set this up and get it cycled. Also this tank is limited to what I can do with it as far as adding a different filter. Not sure if babies could be sucked up in in it. If you think I should get it started... could I possible take 4 gallons of the water in my established tank and put it in the new tank to speed up the cycling process? Also what is exsisting tank "medium" that you guys talk about and would I put that inside the filter where the carbon stuff is? Gravel or no gravel? Fine gravel or rocky gravel? I also have a spare 3 gallon tank with an undergravel filter/ airstone tube thingy. It is also empty at this time.

4) Are the fish I have now the baby eating types?

5) What if I just let the Mommy Platy stay in the tank and have her babies. I can go today and get some of that artificial baby hide out grass/plant mats. Do you think ANY of the babies would survive? Would I need to do something with my filter? Are the holes in it too big? (see pictures) I also have the bigger type gravel (see pictures)... is this type of gravel ok? Should I add a heater? I am guessing my tank is a little small for a divider??? Or... should I get net. Ugh... im so confused!

Ok... so basically what I am asking is what should I do exactly if my Platy is pregnant. I really don't want to be a breeder so if she is prego... after this batch I will probably give her to my sis which has a way bigger tank or trade her in. Also... I am really not sure what to do with 50+ platy's... give them to a petshop So should I just let nature take its course and get some hiding plants and see what happens???

What would you guys do?

Thank you so much in advance for any info. Sorry this is so long.
Candee

p.s. Hey maybe she is not even pregnant and it is actually a male platy that likes to eat. Hehe!

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[sunpirate2u]

ur platy is a deffo female and she is pregnant. she looks really close to giving birth. ur right. u don't have time to cycle a fry tank. if u get a breeders net they will live in there for ~a couple weeks. an under gravel filter will suck up the little fry.
Fry will eat powdered fish flakes. U can also get special fry food at ur LFS.
White poo is not good. It means that ur fish has an internal parasite. Watch her carefully and make sure she's not getting sick.
In a fry tank any thing would do for the substance but large rocks. They could fall and smash the little babies. Bottom-less tank would do just fine, also small gravel. Your gravel will do fine.
A lot of people get heaters for there fish but mine live fine without one. Although it's best to get one. They start off really cheep on EBay.
Fry r so cute and funny little things. I hope that once u see them u will fall in love with them and want to have more.

 

[Candee]

ur platy is a deffo female and she is pregnant. she looks really close to giving birth. ur right. u don't have time to cycle a fry tank. if u get a breeders net they will live in there for ~a couple weeks. DO NOT GET A BREEDING TRAP THEY R TOO SMALL. an under gravel filter will suck up the little fry.
Fry will eat powdered fish flakes. U can also get special fry food at ur LFS.
White poo is not good. It mean that ur fish has an internal parasite. Watch her carefully and make sure that she's not getting sick.
In a fry tank any thing would do for the substance but large rocks. They could fall and smash the little babies. Bottom-less tank would do just fine, also small gravel.
A lot of people get heaters there fish but mine live fine without one. Although it’s best to get one. They start off really cheep on EBay.
Fry r so cute and funny little things. I hope that once u see them u will fall in love with them and want to have more.

Ok... so I will go today and get a breeders net, fry food. What else?
I am not familiar with the nets at all. How big are the nets and is my tank big enough.
Do you think I should put Mom in there now or just keep watching and wait till she starts having them.
Will I know when she is having them?
What should I look for?
Will I see the babies right away?
About how big are they?
So do you think I should go ahead and set up that 6 gallon tank to transfer them to later? Should I put a few gallons of exsisting water in there to get it going? Stress Zyme? Medium? What about the filter?

OMG... I am so nervous. And actually really excited. The little baby I have now... that PetSmart threw in my fish bag is my pride and joy. I am so proud of him makin it through all he has... especially now that I have read all this. He is still really tiny. I am gonna take a pic and post it. Maybe you can tell me about how old he is. Yeah... I am really gonna like this I am afraid. My husband thinks I am nuts with all this fish stuff that originally started out as a 3 gallon goldfish tank for my 2 year old. I upgraded... then upgraded... then started a tropical fish tank... no I am gonna have babies and I am sure the tropical take will be upgraded soon. This is what happens when hubby doesnt let the my sweet little doggies in the house anymore. Haha! Hey a turtle might be next. He will really start freakin then! Haha!

 

[sykogngsta]

yOu can also buy a clump of hornwort and add it to your tank, so the babies wil have a place to hide. thus way, you wo't ned to get a breeder tank or anything plus live plants are good for yor tank. Idont spearate my fry form my comunity tank (that has a lot of larger fish) and about 10 fry survived and are growing well now

 

[5teady_2012]

For starters breeding traps are fine, nets are worse for the simple fact they have not section where the fry drop in and are constantly in with the female til she has finished, leaving them more vunrable.

People who say traps are bad make me ( when a female is due to drop, she dont swim much and stays pretty static and being in a trap gives her assurance of not been harrased as well, 90% of the time they wont even fight to get out as they have more things on the mind like dropping fry )

I have been using traps for years and never had a problem with them at all.

Your fish is not due yet, she is 2-3 weeks pregnant max.

A 10g tank is ideal for fry to grow in, a small sponge filter run off a airpump is perfect, fry produce very little waste so the maintainance is very simple and minimal.

Adding a bit of filter media from old and fill your tank half with other tank water and half with new water (treated of course) will be fine

 

[5teady_2012]

Just to add, if you want to leave her to have her fry in the tank, just heavily plant it so there is plenty of places to hide

 

[Candee]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for everyones imput, suggestions, ideas and experiences. I appreciate it so much.

Ok... guess I need to decide if I want a net or trap OR if I want to put a bunch of stuff for the fry to hide in and take the risk. Oh man.... tough decision. Im going to start getting the 6 gallon tank ready just incase I decide to put the fry in there.

Here is a pic of the baby I have had since March 7th. He is almost 3/4 inch long now. Do you think maybe he was really new when i got him. When I first got him he had only one or two little black spots on him and he was less than 1/2 inch long at the most. He did really good hiding and none of the fish bothered him at all. Maybe i have mellow fish that wont pick on the fry? If I kept them all together... how would i go about feeding since i need to feed the fry more often?

 

[kribensis12]

Do you keep any mollies? That fry looks like it might be a dalmation molly,as i've never seen platy fry grow that fast, and it's marbled, i've never seen a marbled platy( would be coll though!)

 

[Candee]

Do you keep any mollies? That fry looks like it might be a dalmation molly,as i've never seen platy fry grow that fast, and it's marbled, i've never seen a marbled platy( would be coll though!)

It could be something other than a platy. It was in the same tank at PetSmart as the two platy's I have along with tons and tons of other platy's (I think). I am not too fish literate so there could have been all different types of fish in the same aquarium. Who know's with PetSmart. Hmmmmm.... I am wondering now what this little guy is?

 

[kribensis12]

Does he have big fat lips? If so he's a molly. Got any better pic's?

 

[Candee]

OK.... I am officially a grandma. She FINALLY had her babies this morning. I was really starting to panic a little when she still had not had them yet. My whole family thought I was nuts and that she was not pregnant and just fat... since I kept telling them "any day... she will have them any day now". For the last 2 weeks she would not eat and pretty much just sat at the bottom of her tank. I was getting pretty worried. This morning when I went to check in on her... she was skinny and a baby was hanging out of her. There were fry swimming all over the tank. Later in the day, I moved the Mom to the community tank and she is doing great. I have no ideas how many babies there are. At one time I could see about 12 swimming around all at once. I am sure there is alot more hiding in the all the baby shrub/grass. I did not think they would be that small. I am totally amazed... I just keep thinking that it is gonna take forever for them to grow from that size. I got the "First Bites" fry powder stuff and I am feeding them about every 3-4 hours. Is this too much or not enough? Anything else I should be doing?

I still can't believe how teeny tiny they are. And did I mention FAST too.... AMAZING!

 

[shelaghfishface]

congratulations candee
i hope it all goes really well for you, i remember when i first had platy babies awww bless her i sat up ALL night with her,i was so proud.
you sound like you are doing everything fine

shelaghxxxxxx

 

[LauraFrog]

Sounds like everything is going well then. I think the other platy is a male (though hard to tell from the photos) so if you don't want babies, just leave her in the tank next time she drops and let nature take its course. You should really get a second female if he is a male because he will harass her. Virtually all females except from pure strain breeders are pregnant when you buy them and they can store sperm for months, so you will have fry whether you switch fish or not.

 

[OldMan47]

Congrats on the new fry Candee. Its always fun to have fry in the tank. I guess you already know that your older fry is way bigger than a new born platy. It sounds like you are doing fine with the care. Be sure you use a siphon to remove the food buildup on the bottom of the tank every day or two. If you are feeding every few hours there will be a buildup. If you leave it where it falls, it will start to decompose and lead to water quality problems so its best tostay on top of things.

 

[Candee]

Congrats on the new fry Candee. Its always fun to have fry in the tank. I guess you already know that your older fry is way bigger than a new born platy. It sounds like you are doing fine with the care. Be sure you use a siphon to remove the food buildup on the bottom of the tank every day or two. If you are feeding every few hours there will be a buildup. If you leave it where it falls, it will start to decompose and lead to water quality problems so its best tostay on top of things.

Gosh... I am terrified to use the siphon. I am afraid I will suck up some babies. I should take off the wide part of the siphon and just use the tube right? I am just so scared to use it. I know there are lots and lots of babies in there... more than I think. I actually counted about 18 swimming around today at one time. I have gravel rocks in there and what if they are some lesser active fry sitting on there when I start suctioning? Ugh! I also have a bunch of plant shrub stuff in there too. Should I take some out now that they are not in danger of getting ate by anything? Might make it easier to clean? I have a little Diego Hide-out house that they all really seam to like cuz they go in and out, in and out and alot just hang out and sit on the top of it. Maybe they will all go in their house when I scare the crap out of them with the hose. I have a sponge filter going and also a regular filter going with nylon over the intake.

They are soooooo cute. Active little things! I am enjoying this alot.

I went today and gave my local pet store the 3 goldfish that I had in a 20 gallon tank. I plan to turn this tank into another tropical fish tank. Do I need to start all over and empty out everything completely? Or can I do a water change and leave the gravel there? Is the good bacteria in my goldfish tank ok for tropical fish or is it harmful? How should I go about safely switching it over to a tropical tank? Any suggestions?

Thank you everyone for your replies and all you help and advise. I greatly appreciate it!


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