What Is Squared Off?

[Mamashack]

My female platy didn't "square off" as such but she did look very fat. On new year's day spotted a single fry which already with its colours so must have been 2-3 weeks old I'm guessing. Mum looked very fat 12 days later but overnight she looked amazingly slim and this time I managed to see quite a few tiny fry. She was voracious tho and gobbled them up if she could catch them. Dad was the "maternal" one! I haven't separated mine as guy at LFS said I'd need a new tank every month if I did so I'm going the natural route and have imported a huge plant for the fry to hide in and they'll have to do what nature teaches them and hide or be eaten. Sounds callous I know but I haven't the room for any more tanks to be honest. It's great fun tho watching them develop!
Let us know how yours gets on!

 

[Borngemini]

I will def keep you updated its weird cuz every hour I look she looks a tad bigger o she seems to be trying to get away from the male and fighting against the filter lol

Posting that , I've separated them now to see how she acts
And I agree on the learn or die

 

[the_lock_man]

Sounds callous I know

No it doesn't sound callous to me. It might sound callous to someone who falls into the trap of projecting human/mammalian values onto non-human species.

 

[snazy]

With my platies, some of them didn't square off either. It's more visible with guppies than platies.
But to explain what it means, the anal area of the fish opens up a little bit a couple of days before birth which makes kind of a squre angle instead of the rounded look below the tail as in your pictures. The same happens with the very front of the belly, it expands so much that it looks like a square angle. So these two angles make the hole belly look kind of squared but not as much as they've swallowed a box or anything, but visible enough. Your fish still has a rounded belly.

 

[Borngemini]

What does white poo mean? Shes pooing loads!! And it's thick and white

Ohh I get you so instead of looking round she won't have any shaped circle at all more a corner? \_/ like that

 

[snazy]

What does white poo mean? Shes pooing loads!! And it's thick and white

Ohh I get you so instead of looking round she won't have any shaped circle at all more a corner? \_/ like that

Yes, more like that but not literally of course. At least the anal area opens up wider which gives the bottom part a square look.
The white poop depends, if it's white and stringy, it's no good and could be parasites related. If it's solid, it could be the type of food they ate. Mine would poop white after they ate some of the cucumber for the pleco and they have massive poops too.

 

[Mamashack]

Both my adults have had white stringy poo for a couple of days and yesterday wouldn't eat anything - even mum stopped chasing the new fry. Reading posts in the tropical fish emergency forum had me almost convinced they could have parasites altho there was no visible evidence other than the white poo. They were listless to the point I thought they might be dying. Did a 50% tank change (think I may have lost 1 or 2 fry in the process,

, but I was desperate not to lose mum or dad if I could help it) Added half dose of Myxazin (because of the fry) which is all I had handy. I expected to see dying if not dead adult fish by this morning, but they were swimming around like nothing was wrong and eating seems to be back to normal ! I'm still not sure why it happened, but I guess it could have been the Liquifry no.2 that I started putting in for the newest fry. Doesn't explain the listlessness, but I'm just grateful they seem to be ok today.

Will continue with half strength Myxazin, but not sure whether I need to extend the time with it being half dose or whether to stick to the recommended 5 day course. Any ideas, anyone?

 

[Borngemini]

What does white poo mean? Shes pooing loads!! And it's thick and white

Ohh I get you so instead of looking round she won't have any shaped circle at all more a corner? \_/ like that

Yes, more like that but not literally of course. At least the anal area opens up wider which gives the bottom part a square look.
The white poop depends, if it's white and stringy, it's no good and could be parasites related. If it's solid, it could be the type of food they ate. Mine would poop white after they ate some of the cucumber for the pleco and they have massive poops too.

Yes its solid they've had frozen peas about 3 days ago and some mealworm today

 

[Borngemini]

No babies this morning! It's intense

 

[Mamashack]

She'll probably wait til you're too busy to notice! Sod's law! lol

 

[Borngemini]

Maybe! Haha, she's bigger today and boxy I'll take a picture when I'm home but I've poped to the petshop she will have had them when I'm back my luck!

 

[Borngemini]

 

[Mamashack]

She's certainly looking very pregnant! Mine looked like that just before she sprogged - very fat one night and then superslim the next morning!

 

[Borngemini]

Ah wow ! I'm Worried about her she's trying to get away from the male but he keeps ramming her up the heater and she sat on the ornaments and he came to her and she attacked him! Help please she's swimming around fine now but she's on and off

Put her in the breeding trap now, she's got rounder but lost the squareness

 

[Mamashack]

My male platy seem to be randy and persistent too. Yours may know she is about to sprog and thinks he may be in for tasty treat! Having said that, my male is more "maternal" than the female - she ate all but 5 of the latest batch, whereas he appears to steer her away from them if she spots them in the plant where they hide. Maybe it's because he's the only adult male and knows they are his. I don't know if that's possible, but it's a theory. Doesn't mean your male will be the same tho.
Any fry news yet?