platy fry

[danny]

hi,
i have recently had lots of baby platys born but i have only 6 left now
they are about 1 week old can anyone help me on how to keep them alive

[Mary Burns]

"danny" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> hi,
> i have recently had lots of baby platys born but i have only 6 left now
> they are about 1 week old can anyone help me on how to keep them alive
>

The parents often eat them, who else is in the tank?
Lots of plants offer good cover if they are with others, and help them to
survive as they eat the microrganisms on algae/plants at first.
They need to be fed 3 or4 times a day at first, breeders do up to 6 times!!!
This is hard in community tank, as the others get the food first. I find my
fish ignore crushed flake/daphnia if I give them bigger food like
artemia/bloodworm and so the smaller bits reach the fry. When I had over 55
born from 2 mums, it was much easier as I removed the 2 mums and fed the fry
easily. Another 8 have just survived in 65g with clown loaches/females. They
are easy to net if you can find them and either pop them in breeder net or
their own tank. I prefer to leave them as they get on better with
parents/others and only the hardiest survive. My first fry grew up the hard
way as I didn't know very much, but 15 survived as for some reason my
parents don't eat them and still don't. Don't worry too much with your first
ones, as they will be more...females can have fry for up too 6 months, every
5 or 6 weeks from one insemination from the male. Mary

[danny]

thanks for that they seem to be very big for babys though they are now
almost half a cm long about 1/4in the mother seems to be very
protective (the father died) she scares away the glowlights as they try
to get to the baby fish, i have found another couple, i have seven
babys now and they dont seem to be very scared of the other fish i have
in my tank 2 glowlight tetras, 3 platys and, a clown tiger plec, but i
cant seem to feed the little ones but they are eating the algea of the
plant which is now blue (its origonal colour is blue, it was brown
before i got the fry) and they seem to be growing fast but should i
clean the tank?? or just leave it if i should clean it should i take
the water from the top instead of the bottem.

danny

[Mary Burns]

"danny" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> thanks for that they seem to be very big for babys though they are now
> almost half a cm long about 1/4in the mother seems to be very
> protective (the father died) she scares away the glowlights as they try
> to get to the baby fish, i have found another couple, i have seven
> babys now and they dont seem to be very scared of the other fish i have
> in my tank 2 glowlight tetras, 3 platys and, a clown tiger plec, but i
> cant seem to feed the little ones but they are eating the algea of the
> plant which is now blue (its origonal colour is blue, it was brown
> before i got the fry) and they seem to be growing fast but should i
> clean the tank?? or just leave it if i should clean it should i take
> the water from the top instead of the bottem.
>
> danny
>

I always do my normal water changes/vacuum gravel. They soon learn to play
with you as platy fry are very adventurous and not scared of your hand by
around 4 weeks. You could try using a turkey baster to get food nearer where
they are at first. Mary

[Gill Passman]

Mary Burns wrote:
> "danny" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>
>>thanks for that they seem to be very big for babys though they are now
>>almost half a cm long about 1/4in the mother seems to be very
>>protective (the father died) she scares away the glowlights as they try
>>to get to the baby fish, i have found another couple, i have seven
>>babys now and they dont seem to be very scared of the other fish i have
>>in my tank 2 glowlight tetras, 3 platys and, a clown tiger plec, but i
>>cant seem to feed the little ones but they are eating the algea of the
>>plant which is now blue (its origonal colour is blue, it was brown
>>before i got the fry) and they seem to be growing fast but should i
>>clean the tank?? or just leave it if i should clean it should i take
>>the water from the top instead of the bottem.
>>
>>danny
>>
>
>
> I always do my normal water changes/vacuum gravel. They soon learn to play
> with you as platy fry are very adventurous and not scared of your hand by
> around 4 weeks. You could try using a turkey baster to get food nearer where
> they are at first. Mary
>
>
My Platy fry seem to do quite well for themselves scavanging in the tank
(very heavily planted). Once they reach around 1/2 cm I find they come
up to the top and feed with everyone else. I vaccuum the gravel in my
tank as normal - the babies seem to keep away from the syphon - only
once did I accidentally catch one and was able to release it very
quickly - I suppose it is an advantage of being bright orange lol

It has to be said that my Clowns were very interested in the Java moss
where the last batch were hiding and I think that the survival rate was
probably quite low but at least two survived....

From my experience it is providing the cover/shelter that is the key to
having them grow up in the main tank along with the micro-organisms that
are in there for early food. I did once take one of my females out of
the tank to give birth and got innundated with Platy fry.....ended up
taking 20 to the LFS...

Gill

[teri]

Must be the season... One of my platies had babies on Saturday. My
plan was to let them get eaten, but of course while watching it happen
maternal instinct kicked in and all bets were off. I quickly went to
the neighbors and got a breeders trap thingie and "saved" some. I now
have 9 fry. But I am afraid that I will accidentally spill them out
of their trap while feeding or something and that will be it. I have
an Eclipse 3 that I could put them in, but it is not set up right now.
My question is about cycling that tank. If I put a new filter in the
spare slot in my running tank for a week will that be enough to get
things running in good order on the three gallon, or is there a better
way to do it? Or, with such little fish does cycling even matter? I
will use water from a water change on the bigger tank to fill the
small one.

At five days I can already see some black spots on them, but I don't
know what color they will be, any guesses - mother is yellow, father
is orange with black spots.
Teri