Is My Platy Pregnant? And Other Questions...

[12azor]

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?

I think you're better off washing/boiling the gravel from the goldfish tank just to make sure there are no bacteria that could harm tropical fish. I would then take out some water from your current fish tank and add it to the other adding dechlorinated water to both. Then add some filter medium from your current tropical fish tank to the filter of your new one.
Leave the tank for a few days will the filter and heater running and it should be all ready for the new fry.

Get a second opinion though, not 100% that some of that is all right.

 

[Candee]

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?

I think you're better off washing/boiling the gravel from the goldfish tank just to make sure there are no bacteria that could harm tropical fish. I would then take out some water from your current fish tank and add it to the other adding dechlorinated water to both. Then add some filter medium from your current tropical fish tank to the filter of your new one.
Leave the tank for a few days will the filter and heater running and it should be all ready for the new fry.

Get a second opinion though, not 100% that some of that is all right.

Yeah... I think I have enough time to somewhat cycle a tank before I move them over. I am going to take your advice on the water and filter medium. I will take some of the gravel from my community tropical tank and add it to clean gravel.

QUANTITY UPDATE: we turned out the lights and literally saw about 40-50 fry come out of the bushes. Yikes! They all look pretty healthy. Do all the fry usually make it? If some do die... do they stay at the bottom or will they float to the top. I have had not a single floater. Tomorrow I am going to attempt a little siphoning so if anyone has any helpful hints... that would be great. My husbands thoughts are... "if you suck one up just retrieve him out of the bucket and put him back in the tank... it will be like a fun waterslide ride for the little guy." Haha!

 

[OldMan47]

The fry should be OK with the siphoning you will need to do. If you keep an eye out you can miss most of the fry easily since they will swim away if they can. Suvival of livebearer fry is usually quite high if they are not lost to predation.

 

[Candee]

Hi again. I have a few more questions.

The baby fry are doing great. They will be 2 weeks old this coming Saturday. There are about 30-40 of them and they are growing fast. They all seam super healthy and I have yet to see any that have died. I do a 30% water change every other day. And I have only been feeding them the "First Bites" fry food 4-6 times a day.

1) Should I be feeding them something other than the "First Bites"? If so... what is safe to feed and how often? I really don't want to havest any live critters cuz I think it will be hard with my 2 year old getting into everything. Any suggestions?

2) I have a bigger tank that has been cycling for about 1 week (used filter medium, gravel and water from the community tank). I took a water sample to PetSmart and they said everything was in the good range. When is it safe to move the fry over to the bigger tank?

MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION.....

3) My Mommy Platy has not been normal ever since giving birth. She never swims around. She is either just floating at the top or siting at the bottom and I never see her eat. I am afraid she may be starving herself to death. She looks pale and weak. I feed freeze dried blood worms once a week, freeze dried shrimp every other day and tropical flakes 2x a day. I don't know what to do. Should i get some frozen stuff?

Thanks everyone!

 

[12azor]

1) At about 2 weeks I would feed them hard boiled egg yolk - clean out when they've finished. Try powder food aka grounded fish flakes, they should be able to handle that. Just keep up feeding then 3x a day.

2) I would say that it may be safer to leave the tank for a week or two. I'm not sure that the fry's immune systems are up to scratch. When they fry get over 1month old and atleast 1cm long I think it would be safe to move them.

3) If you have a breeding trap that can go into your current tank I would set it up and put the platy in there. She may be stressed. When you have put her on her own in a breeding trap feed her the middle of a boiled pea as she may be constipated.

Hope it works!

 

[OldMan47]

A 2 day old livebearer, even my little endlers, can eat plain crushed up flake food. In my endler tank there are fish ranging from newborn to adult at all times. When I feed them flake I put in most of what I will be feeding then grind the last little bit between my finger tips for the small fry. Everybody just keeps growing in the tank so I know that is doing the trick for the fry. As a growth food, you could add frozen baby brine shrimp or frozen daphnia to the mix because they will give your fry a small boost in growth rate but it sounds like your fry are doing fine without it.
Actually I got about 30 new mollies myself last night so now I have another tank to powder some of the flake food into.

 

[Candee]

1) At about 2 weeks I would feed them hard boiled egg yolk - clean out when they've finished. Try powder food aka grounded fish flakes, they should be able to handle that. Just keep up feeding then 3x a day.

2) I would say that it may be safer to leave the tank for a week or two. I'm not sure that the fry's immune systems are up to scratch. When they fry get over 1month old and atleast 1cm long I think it would be safe to move them.

3) If you have a breeding trap that can go into your current tank I would set it up and put the platy in there. She may be stressed. When you have put her on her own in a breeding trap feed her the middle of a boiled pea as she may be constipated.

Hope it works!

Thanks for all the info. I tried separating the Mom by putting her in a breeding trap. Gave her the inside of a pea and she would not eat it. She just will not eat. I am going to keep trying throughout the next few days. The trap seams to be stressing her out a bit so I dont know how long I will keep her in it. At least when she is in it I can see if she is eating but on the other hand when she is loose in the tank... I am hoping that she is sneaking in a few bites of what is laying on the bottom during the night when no one is looking. How long could she possible go without eating? I need something so yummy that she couldn't pass up. What should I try next?

 

[Candee]

A 2 day old livebearer, even my little endlers, can eat plain crushed up flake food. In my endler tank there are fish ranging from newborn to adult at all times. When I feed them flake I put in most of what I will be feeding then grind the last little bit between my finger tips for the small fry. Everybody just keeps growing in the tank so I know that is doing the trick for the fry. As a growth food, you could add frozen baby brine shrimp or frozen daphnia to the mix because they will give your fry a small boost in growth rate but it sounds like your fry are doing fine without it.
Actually I got about 30 new mollies myself last night so now I have another tank to powder some of the flake food into.

Well congrats on your new fry also!
I gave them some crushed up tropical flakes today and I think they really liked it. I am so amazed at how they are growing. There are about 6 fry that hang out and eat everything from the top. They are 3x bigger than the rest of the fish. Then there are some really little guys. All of them are super fast swimmers. They are pretty smart too. When I open the feeding door.... they all come out from hiding within about 2 seconds. I think they all just sit and stare at the door all day long. Haha! Their fins are all black now. They are so cute!

I have a question... and need some more advice. I use to have 2 chinese algea eaters in my community tank but gave them to my sis after reading about how big they get and how they are not too nice sometimes (PetSmart forgot to tell me all this). Anyways... I never had any kind of algae problem and I contributed this to the algae eaters which kept everything really clean. I notice now that there is very small spots of algae forming on the glass and a few of my decorations in my community tank. I have been reading about Otocinclus Catfish and Apple (Mystery) snails. Should I get one of these or should I just clean it manually and/or try some algae remover liquid?