Rewth
06-07-2007, 02:59 AM
back in april i got my first tank a 10 gallon. added fish bout 2 weeks later when the ammonia levels dropped (but before nitrites had, i didn't reallyk now what i was doing yet). a trio of red mickeymouse platies and 5 neon tetras.
one platy died immediately. then for a week things were good. then we noticed that one of the platies was getting notably larger. a little websurfing later and yep, the two remaining platies were male and female and the female was prolly pregnant. this was prolly april 20
then she started chasing the male away whenever he got near. bout three days of this and we found him on the bottom. somewhat beat up. so down to 5 neons and the platy. by this time i knew i should chill on things til i got the nitrites/nitrates under control. bout may 20, a full month later, i FINALLY got everything to zero out and things have been fine since. doing 30% changes every week now via gravel vac. things are good.
the problem is... here we are June 6. at least 45 days after we noticed this platy was likely pregnant. now she's jsut HUGE. we've since added a single new platy (female blue highfin mickey mouse) kinda hoping she'd be nicer if it was female and not trying to get some every 5 minutes. so far its been good. but... after 45 days i'm starting to get concerned. platies gestate for 28-30 days on average... we're well over that. and i'm not seeing a gravid spot, i'm not seeing any little black spots in the belly, etc etc etc. not a single sign of impending birth.
so the question is... is she really pregnant? is there something wrong? i've attached a pair of pics (fairly low quality, but you can see her shape for sure.) any advice?
one platy died immediately. then for a week things were good. then we noticed that one of the platies was getting notably larger. a little websurfing later and yep, the two remaining platies were male and female and the female was prolly pregnant. this was prolly april 20
then she started chasing the male away whenever he got near. bout three days of this and we found him on the bottom. somewhat beat up. so down to 5 neons and the platy. by this time i knew i should chill on things til i got the nitrites/nitrates under control. bout may 20, a full month later, i FINALLY got everything to zero out and things have been fine since. doing 30% changes every week now via gravel vac. things are good.
the problem is... here we are June 6. at least 45 days after we noticed this platy was likely pregnant. now she's jsut HUGE. we've since added a single new platy (female blue highfin mickey mouse) kinda hoping she'd be nicer if it was female and not trying to get some every 5 minutes. so far its been good. but... after 45 days i'm starting to get concerned. platies gestate for 28-30 days on average... we're well over that. and i'm not seeing a gravid spot, i'm not seeing any little black spots in the belly, etc etc etc. not a single sign of impending birth.
so the question is... is she really pregnant? is there something wrong? i've attached a pair of pics (fairly low quality, but you can see her shape for sure.) any advice?