pregnant platy

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i'm so pleased to find this site , i have my first serious tank that i purchased last year at a thrift shop ...20.00 for a bow front 46 gallon (strange number huh ) it's really awesome , we bought 6 cichlids (african) very tiny ...now a year later they are really huge ...my husband and i really enjoy them .a few mths ago i set up a 10 gallon as one of my fish was being bullied ...anyway the fish that was being mean died so we did a complete change and the 10 gallon was a lifesaver ....so i decided to put something in the 10....i found a sunset platy at walmart alone in a tank so i bought it ...well i guess you know whats next ....yep ...babies , i think the mom has eaten quite a few but i have live plants and lots of hiding places and i still have 5 (for now ) they were born some time yesterday ....what i want to know is how long do they take to give birth , mom is still pretty darn fat but i haven't seen any newbies ...can this go on for days ? and is this normal ?
i'd appreciate any input on this
btw....i set up another tank for mom till the babies get bigger, a 5 gallon
will her belly go down dramatically after birth ?


thanks ,
kim