Why Do Platys Eat Their Young?

[Mr Melt]

Allright lads;

This has just been a wee question that's been on my mind for a while now - why do so many livebearers (particularly platys) eat their young? This is from experience somewhat. My best friend has 4 platys in his tank; according to him they breed like rabbits, but everytime they breed their young ends up eaten by the parents or other fish in the tank.

Another reason I'm asking is because my housemate (who has a 65litre) has a male and female platy, and there is a high chance the female could end up firing babies out every week ¬_¬

 

[fluttermoth]

Because they're not very clever and see the fry as live food.

It's not a behaviour that is 'punished', evolutionarily speaking, as in the wild enough fry survive to continue the species. It is part of the reason they have so many fry though.

 

[Mr Melt]

Because they're not very clever and see the fry as live food.

It's not a behaviour that is 'punished', evolutionarily speaking, as in the wild enough fry survive to continue the species. It is part of the reason they have so many fry though.

Hmm. Poor fry; in danger from the minute they leave the womb =/

 

[fluttermoth]

Well, yes....

 

[Mr Melt]

Well, yes....

I mean more so than many other non-livebearing fish (eg. a lot of cichlids...)

 

[Parasaurolophus]

It might be because in the wild they would just give birth and never see their babies again because it is such an open expanse of water with huge plants and rocks for the babies too hide in and the parents would probably swim somewhere new, but in tanks it's all very concentrated so the babies have less places too hide and are more easily noticed, they don't realise, that what they're eating is their own young because in the wild they probably never see their young again, I'm sure if they did know it was their babies they wouldn't eat them.

 

[sheffieldlad]

The mothers shouldn't for the first couple of days. hormones force them not too but after that they will tuck in.
As mentioned by someone else, they have so many fry to ensure a few survive.
they have zwero parenting skills and probably never see the fry again after birth due to habitat.

 

[OldMan47]

Platies eat fry and all works out OK. For each adult fish, on average one fry survives to the next generation. It is true of platies as much as it is true of cichlids. If the ratio was any different, a fish would expand to a point where only one fry could hide well enough to survive and again the ratio would be one for each adult. Less than that and a species becomes endangered from inadequate reproduction. More survivors than that and population pressures on the environment become unsustainable and again the population drops. Cichlids and livebearers are identical in this respect, the only difference is the identity of the predator. For a typical livebearer, the parent is one of the many predators while in cichlids they are usually not.

 

[ZephyrStarPlaties]

Because as soon as the mother gives birth, she has a lot of built up stress and needs food right away. If you feed her right when she's done, she shouldn't eat any babies.