My Platy

[bouv2]

My Golden Comet looks like a marble......seriously, she looks like she might explode.

 

[OldMan47]

I am happy to hear that you will not be trapping your female Anah. I find that I can never judge a female right for trapping her, although I own a trap that is far better than the ones offered for sale today. My own trap just barely fits into a 10 gallon tank and the entire volume of it is available for a single female to use. If you misjudge a female's drop date, you get to remove her after less than 48 hours from any trap. Where does that leave you? It leaves you in the position of trying to let the female loose, hoping she will not drop fry before you detect all the right signs again. I use an entirely different approach. Rather than trying to trap a female at the last possible moment, I move my female to a different tank. Since she is the only occupant of that tank, she does not find it necessary to do anything to avoid males or any other problems she might have encountered in her old environment. Instead it gives her a chance to relax and eat well until she is really ready to drop fry. This means no premature drops for the female and no drops that the female feels obligated to try to eat. I find that my fish have high fry survival rates, in general, and the fry do fine with no particular attention from me in that situation.
We are nothing more or less than outsiders in many respects in this process. Since that is true, my own advice is based solely on my own experiences and has little validity in the larger world. You will have your own experiences with the livebearer world and must base your own actions on your experiences, not mine. I wish things were different but real world experience cannot be denied. Your own experience will mean more to your future actions than anything a gaggle of "experts" can ever put together.

 

[anah2467]

I am happy to hear that you will not be trapping your female Anah. I find that I can never judge a female right for trapping her, although I own a trap that is far better than the ones offered for sale today. My own trap just barely fits into a 10 gallon tank and the entire volume of it is available for a single female to use. If you misjudge a female's drop date, you get to remove her after less than 48 hours from any trap. Where does that leave you? It leaves you in the position of trying to let the female loose, hoping she will not drop fry before you detect all the right signs again. I use an entirely different approach. Rather than trying to trap a female at the last possible moment, I move my female to a different tank. Since she is the only occupant of that tank, she does not find it necessary to do anything to avoid males or any other problems she might have encountered in her old environment. Instead it gives her a chance to relax and eat well until she is really ready to drop fry. This means no premature drops for the female and no drops that the female feels obligated to try to eat. I find that my fish have high fry survival rates, in general, and the fry do fine with no particular attention from me in that situation.
We are nothing more or less than outsiders in many respects in this process. Since that is true, my own advice is based solely on my own experiences and has little validity in the larger world. You will have your own experiences with the livebearer world and must base your own actions on your experiences, not mine. I wish things were different but real world experience cannot be denied. Your own experience will mean more to your future actions than anything a gaggle of "experts" can ever put together.

I still value your advise, comments, observations & all from years of experience OldMan47. I have so much to learn from fishkeeping and I welcome every input I can get. That's why I joined TFF to interact with fellow fishkeepers, either newbies & experts..fish fanatics! My new fish hobby is really keeping my spirits up, even my husband is into staring at the fishes antics. He just loves my 3 hyper longfinned zebra danios. I've got my hands full with my female platys, both being pregnant. I love the idea of females being docile tank mates, the male platys was just harassing each other I decided to have females. Now, I'm waiting for my platy to drop, she's so huge it hurts just to see her expand more. Keep on sharing experiences OldMan47!

 

[biokid101]

well mine gave birth 3 days ago! to a couple but i wasnt home so i missed it i have 3 fry now...i dont get why ur female is still holding off becasue mine was a little smaller then urs! now my other one has become slow and isolated and not eating im expecting more fry! good luck with urs!

 

[OldMan47]

I was collecting snails from the worst snail infestations today so that I could sell them at a club auction. People with loaches are ready to pay cash for nice snail collections. When I got to the 10 gallon that holds my wild type Xiphophorus montezuma, Monty swords, I found fry all over the tank. I was looking closely at that barren looking tank for a change and noticed several in just a minute or so. They were about a week old by the look of them and had survived the first few days on their own. I sometimes wonder if we don't fuss over the fry in our tanks too much. The cover in that tank was only a small clump of java moss and the fry were swimming about fearlessly, as if they knew the danger had already passed.

 

[anah2467]

I don't know why my platy is still holding off, still no fry. She's still huge so I don't think she had one or two & they all ate them. She's really really square & so stretched to the max. One of these days I hope to see some frys. I will buy more plants for cover. BTW, what happens when the female aborts and absorbs it? Can someone elaborates, please?

 

[biokid101]

lemme tell u what i found out right before mine birthed...the back part where they poop it slants downward and it looks like )( sorta but smaller and slanted..idk how to explain it but mine werent even squared off and gave birth but when they gave birth u can tell cause the slant downward went back up and went to normal idk about the absorb thing....

 

[anah2467]

Hi Everyone! I've got my concerns now since my platy still hasn't drop her fry. Is she really pregnant or maybe she has dropsy. It's past the week now for her expected drop, so is she or is she not pregnant. I've placed a divider in my tank so she still moves around rather than a breeder trap. I've enclosed a video link please tell me what you think.

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR4w_iTGGBQ

My link

 

[lilfishie]

if it was dropsy then i think she would of been long gone, or atleast pineconeing, which it doesnt look like she is.

to me she looks like a balloon platy, general shape and shorter body length but i'd still say she is pregnant cause i think i see eyes.

i take it that she does poop? and it looks all normal

 

[anah2467]

if it was dropsy then i think she would of been long gone, or atleast pineconeing, which it doesnt look like she is.

to me she looks like a balloon platy, general shape and shorter body length but i'd still say she is pregnant cause i think i see eyes.

i take it that she does poop? and it looks all normal

What do you mean pineconeing? At the fish store she was in the dwarf sunset coral platy section. You said she looks like a balloon platy, if so, what stage is she in right now in her pregnancy? Would she be fine segregated in the divider for a week? All my fishes seems to be fine, the same you know just thinking she might be lonely and how does separation stress bother her. I've used the divider since Monday night that makes 3 days separation. Please advise. Thanks.
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR4w_iTGGBQ
My link
And YES she does poop. Sometimes longer, sometimes short...is there a clue about their poop when they're about to drop?
BTW, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate all 0 ppm. I do water change, a pail full (12 liters) weekly.

 

[OldMan47]

Your female looks very large to me. I would try cutting back on her feeding since she looks a bit bloated in your video. She is not pineconing so there is not a worry about dropsy.

 

[fluffycabbage]

defo no dropsy there. pineconing means her scales are sticking out, resembling a pine cone. its a symptom of late stage dropsy.

shes pretty close, squared off, i'd say within a week, but not yet. when her back end white spot looks like its opening up thats when to put her in the divide. could still be a few days from that point though!
are you planning on rearing and selling the fry then?

and yeah it looks like a balloon platy to me.

 

[anah2467]

Hello Everyone!
Finally my platy had some fry. My daughter kept saying to me that she looks ready. She wasn't acting the usual unsocial,she was just her usual but I could see some white spot by the bump protruding so I put her back in the divider by past midnight. So, around 2 am my hubby & son came back from hockey then I notice she was chasing something and eating it. Oh, why did I turn on the light. I couldn't believe it my first fry and I had to see my platy ate her fry & then another one. I hope there will be some fry left for me to see in the morning. There's some plant there so I hope some frys will survive. At times like this I wish she was in the breeder trap so she wouldn't eat them. I couldn't believe how small the frys are, & how fast they wiggle.
Now, my question will she finished the whole night & drop all the frys. That way, when I wake up in the morning I can move her out?

 

[HNL_FISH]

It depends on the fish they can drop at once or i have know a couple of my females to drop some fry and then carry and then drop the rest later, keep the lights off for now as they have more chance of surviving they can hide and so on...i know what u mean with the trap but again if they dont fall through she could eat them also so its just chance and u will have to wait to see.

Gud luck though, hope all end well!!!

 

[anah2467]

It depends on the fish they can drop at once or i have know a couple of my females to drop some fry and then carry and then drop the rest later, keep the lights off for now as they have more chance of surviving they can hide and so on...i know what u mean with the trap but again if they dont fall through she could eat them also so its just chance and u will have to wait to see.

Gud luck though, hope all end well!!!

Thanks. So this morning she's been too hyper looking around the divider, chasing the frys, so for now I moved her back to the rest of the fishes. My daughter & I can see 3 frys definitely might be 4. They're all hiding right now. I can see though that my platy is like the one you said drop some and then some later. She still big I can see 2 or more dark/eye spots by her belly. What are the intervals when they drop, days? She's been running up & down near the divider, sniffing around like she'd like to go back. I don't know just assuming here. Will anyone tell me when the frys are actively moving, there's no danger there w/ the mom out. And I should feed them 24 hrs after they're born,yes? 4-6x daily?
I definitely have 5 frys...two I saw she ate early morning.