Platy gestation and litter size?

[Michael Milligan]

Hi all!

I just noticed my new platys have birthed. I guess they where pregnant when I got them. No surprise there.

Just wondering if anyone knows off the top of their head how long the gestation is on these things and what a standard litter number is?

Thanks kids!

[Scrup]

About a month, and you can get anywhere from 10-40, depending on how old the mama is and how well it goes (stress such as from a breeding net can cause her to have them early, resulting in a percentage (anywhere from 1-100%) of still births. 40 is not a common amount, but not unheard of.

Also, if this is her first litter she will likely give birth 2,3 maybe 4 more times from the one mating.

[Michael Milligan]

wow... that's more than I thought. I only saw a couple little ones in the tank, and I wouldn't think that 10-40 that size would fit. I thinking then that they were born a while ago and have grown a bit.

thanks, Scrup!

[Yourkisa]

Ive had a lot of success with both Mollys and Plattys ( all I really had to do was add water and food ! )

So far, the platty's have given birth twice now, both 28-32 days apart.
First time round there were 22 from one, and 12 from the other female.
Unfortunatly both of the plattys were very agressive towards thier newborns and we lost several almost immediatly due to them being eaten.
Once we added in some annacurus ( I know, bad spelling, no checker on my phone ) both at the bottom at also floating at the top of the box we used, the survival rate went right up.

They both spawned in several batches over the course of about 6 hours, and usually when the tank was dark.

I know that you didnt ask, but I found that the fry are really quite slow to grow, with the second batch of Mollies now being moved out of the nursery while the eldest from the first batch are still a little too small to be let free.

[Michael Milligan]

Well, I've seen only three babies in the tank, and they are about the size of a small grain of rice.

I don't really plan on "breeding" them per say, but with the addition of more plants I expect some of them to survive. How many do I really need, after all.

At the rate you people describe these fish can easily out-populate any space you give them!

[Scrup]

Yes they can. Feeding them a high protien diet will really speed up the growth, its pretty amazing the difference it makes.

[HEADIN]

I think 2 of my platys may be the way as they are both huge and round like small marbles compared to the rest of the group. 2 of my zebra danios also I suspect as they are bulging quite a bit aswell.