Can Anyone help Pregnant Platies

[jonruthy]

Hi,
We are new to keeping tropical fish and we have a pregnant platy, how will we know when she is ready to have her babies? do they do anything strange in the tank? as we have noticed that some of our fish do do silly things like danios chase each other when they are ready to lay there eggs.
Many thanks

[Sasquatch]

You'll notice that they get so big that you'd swear they were gonna burst. Behaviouraly, the female will find a hiding spot where she can put down without too much stress or the male chasing her around.

What are you feeding them? Pregnant platies should be fed high protein (50%+) foods. It'll keep the female in top condition and give you healthier fry. We feed bloodworms, tubifex and plankton to keep ours in top shape.

As for when, it's usually around 1 month's gestation for platies, depending on temperature. So keep an eye out.

Keep us posted.

[jonruthy]

Hi Sasquatch,
Thanks for the infomation, we are feeding frozen quarteta and fish flake, feeding alternate food each day.
What temp should i be keeping the tank to for the platies to give birth? we have it between 26-27c.
Many thanks

:goldfish:

[Sasquatch]

A temp of 26-27°C is fine for platies.

Try and vary the food a bit more. Diverse foods will ensure that your fish aren't missing anything. I don't know what quarteta is ... but as long as it has a high protein content, it should be good.

For example, we feed our platies:
- Flakes: Spirulina, livebearer, brine shrimp and staple
- Freeze Dried: Bloodworms, tubifex, plankton
- Pellets: Hikari brand Fancy Gyppy and Micro pellets.

It's too much I know, a lot of it was stuff that we bought for other fish ... and we feed the platies with it too.

[jonruthy]

Hi,
Thank you so much for that, quarteta is ..... 4 differant food frozen most of which you have named so we aint doing to bad, we was thinking about getting some live bloodworms and brine shrimp as well, would that be advisable?
How many times aday do you feed your fish?

A list of what fish we have in a 200 L tank:

5 Platies
4 Rosy barbs
6 Glowlight tetras
6 Penguin Fish
5 Golden zebra Danios
5 Blach Phantom Tetras

:bfish:

[duce]

hi nice to hear about ur preggy platty ,
u can buy birthing cubes that sit at the top of ur tank so u can pop ur preggy platty in there and she can give birth without loosing and babies .
ive not used one as i had nursery tanks. but friends of mine have and no probs
when babies do arrive do slightly bigger water changes like clock work because there will be alot more poo and wee going on
good luck . oooh and get some pics on pls

[jonruthy]

Hi Duce,
We have one of the birthing tanks on the way off ebay hope that it come before she does give birth.
Mind we have just put a good few more plants in tonight so if it doesn't then they will help with cover.
Many thanks
we will take some pic a.s.a.p and get them posted on.
:8:

[graceluvsplatys]

Oh yeah, and if ya get a breeding net, go for mesh, not plastic.... ive heard of babies getting killed

feed the babies crushed fish fakes and baby brine shrimp, or any other suitibal food that you canmake teeny tiny