Pregnant Platy - if/when can I put her separate

[Ruby011]

Hi there!
So I'm very green to tropical fish keeping.

I suspect one of my platy females may be pregnant. I've tried to read up on the topic, but i don't see the "spot".

She seems very social, except for one of the other female that keeps chasing her and seems to be nipping her belly.

In my opinion she is pregnant but I'm not sure - also, how do I save the fry with the least amount of stress to my girl

I'll attach a picture of her - any advice will help

 

[Jessie J.]

There are two basic methods; leave her in the tank and when she passes the fry, scoop out the babies before she eats them. The second method is to put her in a breeder box (not a fry box) when she is about to give birth. I would recommend putting in a divider and adding lots of live plants; the fry can hide once they're born and the female can be put on the other side once she's done.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I always waited until they were born and then scooped them out into a nursery tank. They aren’t stupid. I changed a tank over to a goldfish tank once and still found platy fry in there with them! They know how to hide. By the way, not all females show the gravid spot. I had one much like yours that never did. She had plenty of babies though.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Female livebearers are best left in the main tank or a quarantine tank that contains lots of plants. Breeding nets and traps are too small for most adult fish and stress the females and can cause the mother to eat the babies when they are born, or give birth prematurely and the babies die. Leaving the females in the main tank with lots of plants gives the mother somewhere to hide during labour and gives the babies places to hide.

The babies can be scooped out with a small plastic container and put in a breeding net/ trap for the first month of life so they don't get eaten by other fish in the tank.

If you have to move a pregnant female livebearer (guppy, molly, platy, swordtail), do not lift them out of the water. Use a net to catch them and put a plastic container under the net while it is in the water. Then lift the female up in the bucket of water.

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If one of the fish is picking at her belly/ butt area, it is probably a male. Post pictures of the other platies and we can tell you what sexes they are. You can also check for yourself. Male livebearers have a long thin anal (bottom) fin called a gonopodium. This is used to impregnate the females during breeding. Female livebearers have a fan or triangular shaped anal fin.

 

[Ruby011]

Thank you so much for all the advice. Added alot of floating plants as well as java moss. So I'm hoping that will be enough for the little guys to hide in.

Her belly is getting more and more "squared" since yesterday.

The remaining platies in the tank are all female. I just had one male when i bought the bunch, but he died about 2 weeks ago, when the tank was 4 weeks old.

So I basically just have girls now.

The one that was nipping at her belly just stopped out of nowhere lol.

Also i noticed that she's eating much more than the other 3 platies.

She's becoming less social too, hiding out in the floating plants - so fingers crossed that it'll happen soon ^.^

 

[FishGuest5123]

Thank you so much for all the advice. Added alot of floating plants as well as java moss. So I'm hoping that will be enough for the little guys to hide in.

Her belly is getting more and more "squared" since yesterday.

The remaining platies in the tank are all female. I just had one male when i bought the bunch, but he died about 2 weeks ago, when the tank was 4 weeks old.

So I basically just have girls now.

The one that was nipping at her belly just stopped out of nowhere lol.

Also i noticed that she's eating much more than the other 3 platies.

She's becoming less social too, hiding out in the floating plants - so fingers crossed that it'll happen soon ^.^

Keep us posted!