# What should I do?



## artemisblossom (May 22, 2008)

I have a white colored platy that I am pretty sure is pregnant, she never got a black spot near her back fin but the whole lower belly section in a square shape past the ribs has turned a reddish color I have a male of the same variety and he is almost transparent there. Anyway she is quite fat, last night she started acting strange swimming rapidly up and down the wall of the tank beside a tall plant, a couple of the other fish starting chasing her up and down when suddenly a tiny fry zipped out from her swim path. I thought she was giving birth so I quickly put her in one of those fry saver things and put the baby in a small 2.5 gal tank that I had ready. She has not had any more babies (if she did indeed have this one, it might have been a strange coincidence ) and she is not happy in the fry saver. I left her in overnight ......what should I do? I am not even 100% certain she is pregant, she just looks very fat and very different from the male and baby came from somewhere, but I do have other females in the tank.


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

chances are that the drops have finished after 24 hours anyways, so i'd take the platy out.

if you have lots of cover, there will be fry in the plants and what not, so you can fish them out. but i wouldn't move them immediately as new born fry can be a little delicate. you can pick up a breeder net that sits in your tank. leave the fry in there for a few days (four or five) feeding them baby brine shrimp, or finely powdered flake food.

if they still have their egg sacks, it's been less than three days since they were dropped. if the egg sack's gone, it's probably been more than three days.


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## Katalyst (Jul 29, 2007)

The dark spot is her gravid spot. I'd take her out of the fry saver, she's probally very stressed. Most fish hate fry savers and I've lost a few in them that were healthy so I can only assume it was from the stress of being in the trap. If you have a place to move the other fish too while she is dropping that would work otherwise a lot of plants real or plastic will help give the fry a place to hide in the meantime.


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

What Kate said ^^^

Many breeders will tell you not to use breeder nets with the females. You can, however, certainly use them to save fry. Also, as THF said, the fry are very delicate, I have squished/killed a few trying to move them.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Also don't forget the mother after she has dropped the babies. After what she has been though she needs to be by herself and fed the best foods. Frozen/freeze dried food and flake food.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

If you're interested in maximizing the number of fry you save, consider getting her her own tank for dropping fry that is filled with plant matter (ie Java moss). That way, you also have a dedicated nursery tank. 

If another tank is not for you, you can also set up a large bucket, have her drop in there, then transfer mother back into the tank, and fry into a fry saver.


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## artemisblossom (May 22, 2008)

Thank you to every one that replied. She has now dropped close to 40 fry and I am still not sure she is done yet. I will take her out of the fry saver on the morning and put the babies in the 2.5 gal tank.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

artemisblossom said:


> Thank you to every one that replied. She has now dropped close to 40 fry and I am still not sure she is done yet. I will take her out of the fry saver on the morning and put the babies in the 2.5 gal tank.


As for using the 2.5Gal tank for fries, what sort of filtering do you have prepared for it? I would like to use 2.5Gal for fries when I get some but I'm not sure what can be used for biological filter in 2.5Gal, a small sponge filter perhaps?

Is the biological load small enough to get away without filtering for a while, without frequent water changes? or should it be used without filter, and daily water change would suffice.

If daily water change is fine, how about maintaining constant water temperature?


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## artemisblossom (May 22, 2008)

conix67 I got the little filtration kit from walmart that would fit in those "small world" acrylic tanks. It is smaller than the sponge filter I had and didn't take up as much room in the little tank. It is just about 6" x 2" the bottom part is filled with floss and the top part has charcoal. You can buy replacement cartridges for it. This is probably not the best kind of filter but I think it will be ok for such a small tank. I also bought a small 10$ heater from petsmart that fits in the tank. In addition to that I added a few handfuls of gravel from my established tank as well as a couple fake plants from that tank also. I changed the filter in my big tank and cut a couple pieces of the used media into squares and put them in the small tank also. I am hoping this will help cycle it. I put all my babies in there this morning....so far so good


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

yep, the gravel will seed your new aquarium. 

some people use bare bottom tanks for fries as their easier to clean that way, so you may want to consider it too. although, i have gravel in my fry tank and it's not much of a problem.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

The cut up used filter media will do more for the cycle than the gravel will. Good job, it'll probably be ready for fry immediately. When you use a large amount of estabished media, or even a fully matured filter to a new tank, often the there is not much of an appreciable cycle, as it's almost like doing a large water change. 

But anyways, your fry sound safe to me!

BTW, people often do not put gravel in their fry tanks as it makes for easier cleaning and counting of fry.


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