Reply With Quotemost likely more on the way, or more could be hiding around if you have planted tank.
Is it common for platy to only produce 2 fries?
or more is on the way?
most likely more on the way, or more could be hiding around if you have planted tank.
I put her in a breeding tank....
Today is the 4th day after she give birth to 2 fries, still no more fries coming out . Does it means she no longer have any fries ?
Maybe the rest of the fry were eaten by the female platy?
I put her in breeding box, so not sure how that can happen?Originally Posted by Urban Aquaria
normally within how many days will the rest of the fries come out?
Is it those breeding box with a grate at the bottom so that fry can swim through and escape the female platy? If so, then sometimes the fry don't swim through the grate and still hang around at the upper section (or they do swim down, but then somehow swim back up looking for food), and due to the very enclosed space, they quickly get eaten, no chance to escape further away from the adult fish.
Platys do sometimes take a few days to give birth to their fry, and if the platy is a younger one, it may not give birth to as many fry too (compared to an older and larger platy). I guess you can see if that female platy has still got the squared-off belly and monitor for a few more days to see if there are anymore fry being produced.
In my case when i kept guppies and platys, i just let them swim free in the tank and give birth, the fry will hide amongst the plants and moss on their own (the few unlucky/slow ones will get eaten, i just consider it survival of the fittest like what its like in nature)... somehow when i put them into breeding boxes it seems they get stressed alot more in the confined space and the fry survival rate was much lower, compared to if they were allowed to swim freely in the tank.
If leave in the main tank how do the fries find food?
i thought they will be eatten once the pop out from the plants to find food?
If the tank is well planted and large enough with alot of hiding spots, the fry will find lots of microscopic food and critters to eat inside the plants and moss (i never needed to specially feed the fry), the majority will not anyhow swim in the open to get eaten by the adults. Fish fry have already evolved in nature to quickly hide and escape getting eaten, or else how they survive in the wild.
I usually notice the tiny fry will only peek out of their hiding spots occasionally, but mainly stay hidden and live amongst the plants, in a larger tank i can see them dart around very fast and escape easily from adult fishes (in smaller bare tanks, they have way higher risk of getting eaten as not much space to escape and hide). Only when they grow larger then they begin to swim out in the open with the adult fishes.
I'm not a professional breeder so i don't mind if some fry get eaten, but for those who breed such fishes for sale, they would usually dedicate entire tanks to become "nursery tanks" where the female is put in for a short period of time only to give birth (the fry will quickly hide in the prepared moss and plants) then removed once it is done, so the entire tank will be only for raising fry, no adult fishes to predate on them.
Is there a max number of days we can put the fish in breeding trap? Would it die if kept inside there for too long?
Not sure about that... for me the longest i kept a pregnant livebearer fish in a breeding box was around 2 days (can see the belly reduce in size noticeably after they give birth). Some people leave the fish in the breeding box for abit longer to make sure all the fry are given birth to. Though i noticed once a livebearer gives birth, the majority of fry should usually be born within 24 hours.
I guess the longer the fish are kept in the breeding box the more stress they experience, which may affect whether they give birth prematurely or delay the births, both of which tend to result in lower fry survival rates.
Since i can't really know for sure the exact day they'll give birth and don't want to stress them by keeping them cooped up in the breeding box for a long time, i switched to just letting them just give birth naturally in the main tank with lots of plants. It seems to work better.
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