Pregnant Platy? Pics

[angelfire28]

I bought a new platy twinbar (i think) today and added it to my aquarium. Its a platy for sure and its a girl, not sure of the type. Anyways, i thought it just looks naturally fat/bloated, but now I think its pregnant. I can't tell if she has a gravid because she is black on the sides and yellow on top and bottom. This is quite sad, I don't want it to be pregnant. She is active I guess, only had her for a like an hour and haven't fed her yet. But she is picking food from the bottom. Sorry the pics are from my awful camera phone, and she kept swimming away. I will try to take more pics later.

http/s1354.beta.ph...html?sort=3&o=5

 

[bluemoon11]

Can't tell very well from the angle? Is it possible to get one of her from the side swimming straight? I know how hard it is though lol, she's lovely!! Xxx

 

[angelfire28]

Thank you!! I will try to take more pics tomorrow, did you see all the pics i posted? If you click the left arrow, it should give you like 6 different pics do they help? Also if it helps, she poops A LOT, like she has my other male platy (who also poops quite a bit) beat. Its very long, and quite big in diameter (sorry for the description). Its incredible, like i haven't seen her where she is not pooing, you can see she is pooing in pictures above. I think it could be a digestive problem, pet stores are crummy at taking care of their animals, fish or otherwise. Its not fair, the first thing they ask me is if I have a filter, heater, how big my tank is and how many fish I have. But they have so many platy crammed into one tank that they can barley swim, with baby fry, algae and a whole mass population of snails. It wouldn't surprise me if she is sick.

 

[bluemoon11]

Ahh can see now. She does look pregnant! She has a slightly square looking belly which is even all across so would be most likely. Platy poop ALOT lol, mine are constantly pooping! Much better than them being constipated or bloated!!

Yes pet store near me is like that, big chain store. They ask the same questions but a lot of tanks are in an awful state! Don't think many are better than others. It's rather sad!

Does look like your gonna be a new baby fishie parent! Xxx

 

[cpwebsite]

It looks like your fish will be a parent. However, I have seen that you do not want to be a parent. I can honestly say in my experience from raising thousands (literally) of livebearer fry, it is a great experience, especially the first time, but it does require space and is not cut out for everyone.

It's hard to stop her from having fry. My recommendations would be let her eat them (not all mom's will dot this so you don't know yet), or give them away, or her and try and get a non-pregnant one (I wouldn't recommend that because she is a beautiful fish! most of what you'll get will be pregnant anyway).

Good luck!

 

[PrairieSunflower]

For various reasons, in the past (despite some people frown on it), I have re-home small fry to other people and it has turned out nicely. Recently was emailed some pictures of guppies I had given away at 2 weeks and are now 8 months old.

 

[the_lock_man]

The general rule with platies is that they all come home from the fish shop pregnant, because they generally have their platy male and palty females all in one tank.

You have a pretty bare tank, with no hiding places to speak of and a few fish in it - the chances are that all the fry will be eaten, if not by the platy, then by the others.

 

[angelfire28]

I don't like the idea of her or any of the others eating the babies, but that's nature I guess. Can anyone give me a guess as to when she will have the babies? I don't think I will have time to change stuff in the tank, to add live plants, or hiding places. So she will have to go on her own and whatever babies survive will survive...or not.

 

[bluemoon11]

From the looks of her, maybe a week?? One of my 'males' are now looking to be female! After specifically asking for males. Grrr

Going to need to redo mine too. Maybe add some stones all piled up together with tiny gaps so they can hide xxx

 

[pumpkinnose]

I want almost half a year without having any babies surviving in my platy/guppy tank before I was able to have an offspring survive. I kept blaming it on my pleco because the babies were always on the bottom but now I think it was all thes other fish. I finally got a bigger aquarium and moved my sons guppies into it and use the 2 1/2 gallon for a nursery. Right now it has 4 babies in it. I have yet to figure out when my my girls will drop but do keep an eye out for the changes in their size and this last time they tore up my new java moss and moved the breeder grass that is floating.