Oh boy....and girl....lol

[MeganL3985]

Okay, so I just figured out the whole "gender identity" with my platies and sure enough I have a male and female. I have a 5 gallon tank with the 2 platies and 5 neons, I don't think i'll be able to hold any babies. What should I do?? lol I plan on putting up my 27 gal. soon, but I dunno if it'll be soon enough to be able to transfer tanks if they come in the near future. How long if she does get pregnant will I have before she has the babies? I'm all stressed out now...I knew I should've got a bigger tank. :help:

[zackish]

I have bread betas in the past and I can say that a lot of them die as small eggs. Then as they hatch more die and you are left with very few.
I would be too worried and if they have babies o well. When you setup your 27 gal tank maybe you will have some new fish to put in there.

[MeganL3985]

I thought the platies have swimmers and not eggs?

[zackish]

maybe, I really have no clue about platys, but they are very small I am sure and other fish can eat them and probably will eat them. Like I said, I am just talking out of the experience with my old betas.

[Drumachine09]

Platies, guppies, mollies, and endlers are all live bearers, meaning they skip the egg phase and the babies come out as fry.

You are already overstocked a bit on your 5 gallon, so a bigger tank will be needed. If you can set up your 27 gallon soon, transfer all but the preggo fish. when she pops (has her babies) move her into the 27 and use the 5 gallon for a fry tank. Remove all gravel in the fry tank to make it easier to clean up.

[MeganL3985]

I'm overstocked? Well thats not good.....I know...very naive, but the people at petsmart said i'd be okay with the 5 neons with my 2 platies b/c the neons are very small. Then the fact that the neons are schooling fish and do better when there are several together (4+).

Can anyone recommend a good beginner book I can get? I'm pretty sure I have a ton to learn.

[Drumachine09]

You cant go wrong with the "for dummies" series. You can also find a lot of stuff for beginners here on AC, or on the net! you arent terribly over stocked, but its boarderline.

[cocoa_pleco]

get aquariums for dummies. BEST book ev3r!

[Severus]

Read the free Beginners E book here at AC!

Once you stick around for awhile you will absorb tons of information

[Drumachine09]

Read the free Beginners E book here at AC!

Once you stick around for awhile you will absorb tons of information



Very true. When i joined on exactly january 1st, i didnt even know what cycling was. Now, i am advising a ton of people, and i know what im talking about.

[Rue]

...Aquarium for Dummies is fine...

...but personally? I was disappointed in it...found other newer, better (IMO) beginner guides at the bookstore...

[Zerileous]

yeah, your about to have a bunch of little platties. You can either try to breed them (wont be hard) or you can try to prevent breeding. If you do decide to continue breeding, make sure you have the proper accomodations for them. Within a few months you could end up with 30 fish...

If you have that larger tank set up soon, and leave plenty of room for new fish, you should be okay for a while, but livebearers just keep on breeding. I would recomend trying to find some solution to keeping males and females separated or getting rid of one sex. This is not urgent, as the process takes time, but you need to be aware of how successfully these guys (and gals) will breed.

One partial solution is to not separate the fry. Most will be eaten. While this may seem appaling at first, it is really much more humane than overcrowding the fish, and its a natural process. This will mean that each spawning only results in a few adult fish.

[MeganL3985]

I thought about taking the male back, as it is already nipping at my female...but I wasn't sure if I should. It might be better though, the female hides in the back of the tank all day.

[MeganL3985]

Oh and if I decide to take the male back, how do I transport it back to the store? The people at petsmart put air in the bags?

[nanaglen2001]

Just throw in some swimming plants so the female can hide, and when you have set up the bigger tank, just get yourself two or three other females.

That keeps the maly busy and the females can get some rest.

Its much better to keep Lifebearers in groups, just a pair isnt natural for them.

[MeganL3985]

Alright, so my female died this afternoon :( I really think it was b/c of the male. I sent my husband to petsmart to get another one, b/c they have a "14 day guarantee" , he came back, I floated the fish bag for a while and did all the norms, as soon as I let the fish in the male was nipping at it. It has been doing it non-stop since I brought it home. If I walk toward the tank the male will go hide in the back but as soon as I leave it comes right back over and starts nipping. The new one is a male this time. Do you think I should take the nipping one back to the store and get a new one? Cause I have a horrible feeling i'm gonna see my new male dead either tonight or tomorrow sometime. The little guy just can't get away from him. The nipper will just chase him all over the tank. I feel so bad :(

[Zerileous]

you have a few options. The obvious one would be to provide more space, which would involve setting up the larger tank. In the mean time, you can do the following:

provide caves, you can buy decorations to do this or make your own out of rockwork (be careful not to use rocks that were not designed for aquarium use). Also provide some plastic plants. The idea is to provide hiding spots so the smaller one can have some refuge. Alternatively, the larger one might decide that he can stake out a cave as his territory to defend and leave it at that.

You can also put the offender in time out. Use some sort of cage, or quarantine to keep the fish from harming his tankmates. Something like a strawberry carton (that would allow water to pass thru but not the fish) would work. (make sure you clean it well, first in a mild bleach solution, then in a heavy dechlorinator solution).

at least now you don't have to be worried about caring for a bunch of fry.

don't worry too much about loosing the fish. while its sad, its unfortunately normal for the beginner fishkeeper to loose a fish or two (I did). we all loose a fish from time to time for various reasons. its a learning process and as long as you are making an effort to properly keep your fish and educate yourself, thats what counts. :)