pregnancy

[tzelinski7701]

i believe my mickey mouse platty's might be parents soon! How can I tell if one of them is pregnant? One of the fish is bigger than the other and has a hump in the underside of her abdomen. this is what makes me think that their will be some fry. How many do they have? How long is the pregnancy? When born what can I feed them? I do not plan on seperating the fry from the parents since it was not my intention on breeding since I am new to this, but their is some hiding places ie...fake plants(2 of them), and a small cave that is formed by having less substrate under a decoration. Might any of these survive? Is she really pregnant? What else could it be? thanks

[William]

She might be pregnent. In fact it is likely that she is since platy spawn easily. If the female becomes fatter and a little squared around the abdomen she is pregnant.

How many fry you get depends on the age of the female, the size of the female and random chance.

Some fry might survive depending on what other fish you have in the aquarium.

[tzelinski7701]

i have no other fish in my aquarium currently so i guess some might survive then

[DemonShark]

tthe young might eat brine shrimp not sure tho

[William]

I have no doubt some fry will survive if their only company is other platys.

The fry will eat brine shrimp but can also be fed mashed flake food.

[DemonShark]

so hell take the flake food and just crumble it up with his fingers?

[William]

Yes. However it better to wet the flakes before crushing them between your figures.

[DemonShark]

why is that?

[William]

You will get smaller flake pieces if they are wet when you mash them.