Pregnant Platy And Frogs

firsttimefry

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Thanks to all the posts and pictures I can confirm that our female platy is pregnant.  But we have two frogs in the tank who will most definitely eat all the fry.  Nothing escapes them. Ever. 
 
I have never seen fry before and would be courious to see this whole "baby fish growing up" but what to do with the frogs during this time and how do I not end up with 27 new platies in the tank?  (Goal would be in the end adding 2 more platies to our tank).
Our tank is on the cooler side too at 23 degrees. It only has fake plants. And momma platy currently shares the space with a dwarf gourami, 2 danio, 4 neon tetra and two male Platy's (and the two frogs). 
 
Any chance we could raise a couple fry to adulthood? How would we go about that? Or are frogs just going to get even fatter?
 
It won't just be the frogs getting fat, it'll be all the tank inhabitants, including the platies.
 
To save fry, you need to make sure there are plenty of hiding spaces, generally that means fine-leaved plants such as java moss, where the fry can get right into the middle, but the adults can't.
 
So we could just put the java moss into the bottom of the tank or do we have to do some kind of seperation?  I can definitely see the frogs getting right in there after the still.
 
firsttimefry said:
So we could just put the java moss into the bottom of the tank or do we have to do some kind of seperation?  I can definitely see the frogs getting right in there after the still.
 
My daughter has a 90l tank with guppies and some of the fry survive each time to get big enough to not fit into an adult fishes mouth by hiding in plants and behind ornaments, etc so this is definitely worth trying.
 
I've never had frogs though but suspect if they're as you describe they'll be hunting the fry down too so it will depend on the number of places to hide and the size of your tank. How big is it?
 
20 gallon.  There are quite a few places to hide but they aren't great.  Frogs can get them all.
 
firsttimefry said:
20 gallon.  There are quite a few places to hide but they aren't great.  Frogs can get them all.
 
Ok so a similar size to my daughters which is just under 24 gallons.
 
It seems you have a few options:
 
1). Get more plants and moss that may help the fry hide
2). Get another tank to put the female in until she's given birth and then raise the fry until they're big enough to go into the main tank
3). Re-home the frogs
4). Leave all as they are and let nature take its course
 
As an aside, you haven't really got the right numbers of each species of fish in your tank. You shouldn't really have just 2 danio (what type exactly as some are too big for the tank size you have) or just 4 neons as they should be in shoals of at least 5+ and Platys should be in a ratio of 1 male to 3+ females. I also don't think Platys are best in a tank of your size as they get reasonably large for live bearers. Guppies or Endlers would be better for your sized tank.
 
I also personally don't like mixing frogs with fish and don't find them very compatible.
 
Sorry to tag this onto the reply but I thought it worth mentioning.
 
You could invest in a breeding net if you want all the fry to survive, also invest in some fry food like liquafry.
 
Ya I wasn`t sure about the species ratios.  I thought someone might comment saying things were off.  I recently took on the tank from a friend and we have been trying to get it back to a happy balance.   We only have one store selling limited fish in town (I live up in northern Canada) and the tetra tank, when stocked is always half dead :( We have bought more tetra on several occasions but only 1 of all of them made it.  The danio are zebra danio I think, little pink guys tetra size. The petshop sells them in groups of two but I was reading they should be in uneven group sizes not pairs? Is that correct?
 
As for the Platies and the frogs. They are actually my favourite as they are the real personalities in the tank.  I think we will add in some moss and more hiding places, and rehome the one male platy though. Ratio would still be off but it would be better for the time being than 2 males to 1 female. If any of the fry make it long enough for me to find them I will try to seperate them.  It sucks but if they get eaten I guess it just makes our other fish healthier :S
 

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