What Is Squared Off?

[Mamashack]

Here is just a short video of my unassisted platy fry survivors. I even managed by accident to trasfer one to my shrimp tan it seems as I can't explain the presence of it there. I suppose I scooped it up with the floating plants although I carried them by hand. If you give your tank a lot of cover, you'll soon regret it

Please excuse the algae I am dealing with for the last 6 months

How old are the fry there Snazy?
Can't say I noticed the algae that much - anyway, it gives the fish something to snack on besides fry! lol

 

[lindaf92485]

I have placed my two adult mollies in the tank with the fry. They are uninterested in the fry themselves. So I'm thinking of just leaving them all in the ten gallon together and working on my bf's old tank and fixing it up and later putting baby fry in that tank to grow up in. Not sure yet.

 

[snazy]

Here is just a short video of my unassisted platy fry survivors. I even managed by accident to trasfer one to my shrimp tan it seems as I can't explain the presence of it there. I suppose I scooped it up with the floating plants although I carried them by hand. If you give your tank a lot of cover, you'll soon regret it

Please excuse the algae I am dealing with for the last 6 months

How old are the fry there Snazy?
Can't say I noticed the algae that much - anyway, it gives the fish something to snack on besides fry! lol

 
I am not sure how old they are to be honest but I presume just 2-3 weeks but there are older/bigger and younger ones too that are not on the video. I only mixed male and female platies about 3 months ago and I have a population explosion since. I'll be going to the LFS to load them off me thinks once they fatten up.

 

[Mamashack]

I know what you mean Snazy. I started with 1 young adult pair last summer and since December they've sprogged 3 times! I upgraded from a 27L to a 60L tank a couple of weeks ago. I can't afford to keep upgrading every month tho (haven't the funding or the space!) so I'm letting nature take it's course and left the fry in with the adults. I thought LFS's would only take fish from reputable breeders with guaranteed disease-free tanks. It's worth a try tho I guess. Where in the world are you? I'm in UK

 

[snazy]

I am in Ireland. I've never given them or would give them diseased fish. I don't buy fish often to contaminate my tanks either.
I've also left nature takes it's course with the platies and they haven't stopped multiplying since then

I'll be separating males and females again as my plan for the platy fry to be eaten by clown loaches and big mama platies isn't working. 

 

[Mamashack]

Because of the increased numbers of fry in my limited space, I have an increase in nitrates. So I've been advised elsewhere on here to reduce feeding and increase water changes. I think the upside of fasting them 1 or 2 days a week is that the female adult will probably start actively hunting the fry again so it might reduce the fry numbers to a more managable number and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
I wasn't suggesting that you would even think about offering diseased fish away, was just under the impression that's what the LFSs thought. I might even consider it myself if the above approach doesn't work.

 

[snazy]

If you local LFS takes fish off and they find them healthy, they'll take from you again. I know you didn't imply anything, just that I responded to the "disease free guaranteed", which of course is very relevant, hence why the LFS won't get fish from everyone and uses the term "official distributors", especially someone they don't know obviously. It all depends.
I wouldn't fast a tank with fry, for the simple reason that they don't do good with breaks in feedings and if there's no natural food, they won't grow well, also the adults may be interested but on the video yours look passed the "snack" size based on my observations.

 

[Mamashack]

If you local LFS takes fish off and they find them healthy, they'll take from you again. I know you didn't imply anything, just that I responded to the "disease free guaranteed", which of course is very relevant, hence why the LFS won't get fish from everyone and uses the term "official distributors", especially someone they don't know obviously. It all depends.
I wouldn't fast a tank with fry, for the simple reason that they don't do good with breaks in feedings and if there's no natural food, they won't grow well, also the adults may be interested but on the video yours look passed the "snack" size based on my observations.

 
Despite the lack of official feeding they've all been nibbling at the live plant (micro-organisms?) and the algae on the plastic plant and the gravel. Hopefully they've found enough to stave off the hunger pangs. The female adult has gone into hunter mode again and the fry are either hiding well (tho I've spotted 3 in the plant) or a few have been eaten.  She doesn't look like she's had a bellyful so maybe they've hidden well because she's hunting.
I haven't posted a video yet (have only just learned how to post still pics! lol) so maybe it was someone else's. I will have a go at posting one tho if I can get it in the right format.
My youngest fry are 1 week old today and the previous "brood" were 2-3 weeks old before she stopped seriously chasing them - it was more like get-out-of-my-way type thing. The male adult is more compassionate and seems to try to head her off if she gets too close to the weeny ones.

 

[snazy]

They do chase them off, that's all. I doubt it they'll get eaten at this size. My platies went hunting my new rainbows which were rather small but the chase lasted a day or so. I think platy fry are absolute professionals at escaping and hiding. They'd eat only around the chosen hiding spot and they'd hang around there till quite grown up. Guppies aren't like that, the fry just go eating with the adults and get eaten in the process themselves. That's from personal observations.

 

[Mamashack]

My youngest platy fry are getting adventurous in their old age (all of 1 week and 1 day!) Have seen them swimming across the tank in plain view at times tho mostly they stick very close to the gravel if they are going any reasonable distance from their hiding places. Have now got 3 extra plants in there to help with a nitrate increase since they were born, so they've also got alternate hiding places now. Have also been doing extra water changes but am hoping the plants will help in the long run.
Am now trying to gradually cool the tank a bit as someone suggested that a slightly cooler tank might slow down the female adult's breeding. She seems to be a 5-weeker - have had 3 lots of fry since early December!! Have only gone down 1ºC on the heater from 24º to 23º so far and that has resulted in a slight dip from 25.5º to 24.7º on the thermometer, but am not sure how low it is safe to go or what increments to use and what timing to use so I'm playing it by ear at the moment. If anyone can advise I'd be grateful.

 

[lindaf92485]

MORE FRY ON THE WAY!!! My second molly is preggo and my first one is as well from what i can tell. Anybody want some Molly Fry??
 

 

[Mamashack]

Have you got a local fish store that would take them off your hands, Linda? I'm wondering if I'm going to have to set up my old tank for the older fry to live in as my platy mama is likely to produce more fry in about 4 weeks unless the cooler water delays it. Wahhhh!

 

[lindaf92485]

Ya I do have a place I can sell them too... but they need to be close to full grown size. They don't take fry.

 

[Mamashack]

Do you know anything about the cooler water theory, Snazy?

 

[snazy]

Do you know anything about the cooler water theory, Snazy?

 
Which one, in regards to breeding?
Generally a lot of species of fish require warmer waters than their usual living conditions, in order to breed so it's probably possible to control breeding this way. Although in regards to platies I don't think you can stop them If fry grow up faster in warmer water, so would the embrios I guess and therefore it will take longer in cold water for the fish to give birth in comparisson with warmer but I am just speculating from the back of my head, which is mostly empty