In my fish tank I have a Female Mickey Mouse Platy and three male guppies (along with other small fish). I did have another Mickey Mouse platy up until about 6 weeks ago who passed away. I do not know if that platy was male or female. Unfortunately months ago when I first bought all my fish the guy at the pet store wasn't too great at telling male from female (and I only found out recently) My female platy has been big in the belly for about 3 weeks now but does not have a gravid spot. Today I came home to find my three male guppies chasing her around and they seem to be nibbling on her front gills.
Could she be pregnant? Why are the guppies attacking?
2007-07-24 17:32:00 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Fish
I do have some other fish in my tank, and from that I believe they are all females (by looking at thier fins). I have four tetras.
Maybe they are mating, but they really seem to be bothering her. Yes, I know it sounds silly, but they do not leave her alone. Constantly nibbling at her gills.
2007-07-24 17:47:22 · update #1
I placed a net breeder box in the top of my tank. I purchased it a few days ago just in case she was pregnant, but then put her in there when I saw the guppies weren't giving up on the harassment. Is it ok to keep her in there now for the time being? There are no plants in the box, but there is some gravel.
2007-07-24 17:55:44 · update #2
I think that she's pregnat, and you did you good on seperating her from the others
And did I read that right that you put gravel in the breeder box? you should take that out of there
And there is no space to put plants in a breeder box anyway, so don't worry about it
My suggestion would be as follows
Get yourself at least 2 more female platies and 1 male,and live plants for your tank
With the live plants you don't have to put your pregnant female in a breeder because the fry can hide in the plants from the other fish
I usually have at least 5-15 frys always surviving with the plant method
And any time I used the breeder the female would usually die because of the stress it causes on her
Also the gravid spot on a micky mouse platy is very hard to make out, usually it is kind of orange, because the babies are already born in orange color
Hope that helps
Good luck
EB
2007-07-25 10:40:19 · answer #1 · answered by Kribensis lover 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Mickey Mouse Guppy Fish
2017-01-18 06:41:41 · answer #2 · answered by morganti 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Guppies can crossbreed with Platy's (same goes with any other livebearing fish) but the fry that result in that wont be able to reproduce. Also, pet store bought livebearers (like your platy) are most likely already pregnant when you buy them because they are in a tank with males to begin with. Sometimes a gravid spot can be hard to see, too, on a darker fish and in some cases (like on lighter fish) the gravid spot doesn't appear dark until a few days before birth.
2007-07-24 17:46:08 · answer #3 · answered by Kayt 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, she could be pregnant. And are you sure the male guppies are attacking her? They could be trying to mate with her. This sounds like mating behavior to me. With no other female fish in the tank, male guppies will try to mate with anything - mollies, platies, swordtails - they don't much care. They do tend to harass females by following them around and poking at their gravid spots, which is why guppy breeders try to keep the females outnumbering the males by two to one.
2007-07-24 17:39:23 · answer #4 · answered by Ghost Shrimp Fan 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i would suggest removing her from the tank into something seperate, because if she lays her eggs and they DONT belong to any of the guppies they will eat them and/or the babies and it will be sad. so gove her her own space and put a plant or two in there.
2007-07-24 17:50:32 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋