I have had the other two platies for about two weeks, at most. I noticed the baby as I was cleaning the gravel for the first time. The vaccuum was sucking up A LOT of this whitish mucousy looking substance, but wrote it off as fish feces and food debris. Then I saw the baby....looks just like the red platy. It had black dorsel and tail fins and was orange in color. Teeny tiny. I stopped cleaning, turned the light off, and I haven't seen it or any new babies since. I've read that platies are live bearers, so why is there only one? And when should I see more of it or any others? I also noticed it swimming into the gravel...will it survive underneath all of the rocks? Any advice?
2007-08-09 16:48:36 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Fish
Like others have noted, platies do not lay eggs. And the parents mistake most as food and eat them. Sometimes some will survive if there is enough hiding places or you remove them by placing them in another tank or placing them in a breeding net. However only save them if you have homes for them or can accommodate that many more fish. So often I have seen fish owners save them all and end up having overcrowded tanks or trying to dump them at pet stores/fish stores. Overcrowded tanks end up causing you problems and dumping them at a pet store or fish store ends in death for them since they usually feed them to larger fish. So I think letting nature take its course is the best unless you want to keep them and have the space for it.
They mate and have babies ALL the time.
Has the tank only been set up for two weeks? You should only clean the tank once a month and only take 25% of the water out with the vacuum. Cleaning it too often or taking out too much water causes a bacteria bloom which makes the water cloudy. Cleaning/removing too much water can also stress out the fish.
If your tank is cloudy right now because you cleaned too much or removed too much water, don't panic. The bacteria bloom is not harmful, it's just not pretty to look at. It'll eventually clear up on it's own in 2-5 weeks. Cleaning it too soon to try to make it less cloudy will only make it worse and make it last longer.
If you have so much food on the bottom you are overfeeding. This could also be another reason for the water being cloudy. They only need to be fed once to twice a day and only a small amount. Their stomachs are only the size of their eyes, so think about that as you feed them. Just a tiny pinch!
Good luck, platies are pretty neat fish!
2007-08-09 18:26:31 · answer #1 · answered by Miss. Kitty 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Platies are live breeders, yes, and if the fry don't have enough hiding spots then the parents will definitely eat them. I recommend a living broad-leaf plant or two which will not only provide great cover for the babies but also help oxygenate your tank. The baby should be fine hiding in the gravel, but keep an eye out around the edge of your tank as the days go by. Sometimes the fry can get stuck under a rock and you might have to gently free it. Another thing to do it check the water in your filter tank! Since the babies, when they're born, are so tiny they look like eyeballs with fins they can easily end up in your filter! We've found four or five in ours when we cleaned it.
And one other little tidbit: it sounds like your platies are the color variety known as Red Velvets (black fins, red/orange body, gold eyes?). Well, if you have other varieties in the tank as well, keep an eye out and you just might see new colors popping up with black fins! Our Red Velvets bred with our Sunny Platys and we got some cute little pale orange fish with black fins and mouths! They were so cute!
2007-08-10 02:54:55 · answer #2 · answered by literarymadness 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
That they are livebearers you know that already now
To secure in the future that the fry survives, buy a bunch of live plants, that way they can hide from the parents and the other fish as well
You might see more, you might not, depending on how many hidingspots there are for them
The gestation period is 28 days for livebearers
And any livebearer can have up to 6 batches with no male around because they can store the sperm
The cloudiness is from cleaning your tank, and should be settled in the morning
you said you stopped the cleaning, did you at least fill up the water that you vaccuumed out already?
hope that helps
good luck
EB
any more questions feel free to email me
2007-08-09 23:02:22 · answer #3 · answered by Kribensis lover 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
They are live bearers.
There aren't any more because the parents ate them.
The slime is fish poop.
It will be fine in the gravel, get baby livebearer food (from the pet store) and feed him close the the gravel. Provide more hiding spots. Consider live plants (they have fish food growing on them, algae, bacteria, a whole microscopic buffet). The also make things to put the babies in. Get a net breeder.
2007-08-09 16:56:46 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Platties give birth to LIVE babies.They have about 30 babies per month EVERY MONTH.Use a fish net to clean your aquarium.You might find more babies are scooped up in your net.The babies will try to hide from the other fish to avoid being eaten.Put them in a nursery that you can buy at a pet store.Good Luck!
2007-08-13 13:22:42 · answer #5 · answered by Klingon 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the same thing happen to me! i brought a marigold swordtail and after 3 days it gave birth to about 12 babies. i catched almost all of them and put them in a bucket. but the babies died. there was only one baby left and it survived by hiding in the gravel from getting eatten and eating the wasted food so yeah it will be fine. the tank will get cloudy but the cloudiness will go away in 2 days. the fish in the tank will eat the babies.
2007-08-09 17:09:31 · answer #6 · answered by vampire_thirst 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
possibilities are high they are snail eggs. Loaches will consume snails, yet they are probably to consume your shrimps besides. in case you get too many snails, make a snail capture from a small plastic field. Bait it is going to some lettuce or cucumber and circulate away it in the tank in one day. Pull out the surplus snails in the morning. you will under no circumstances get all of them, yet you are able to save the numbers down. Ian
2016-10-09 21:52:50 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
platys are live bearers...they produce little swimming offspring when they give birth. no eggs, not really. sometimes the parents eat their young, they mistake it for food and such. it happens. and theyll give birth again, just keep your eyes open for little guys, and when they appear get an intake net separator, put em in there and give them fry food.
2007-08-09 16:52:53 · answer #8 · answered by Twilite 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
you probably had more than one but they got eaten do you have enough plants or caves for it to hide in they swim through the gravel to hide
2007-08-15 04:36:55 · answer #9 · answered by Angie G 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋