babies!!!

[LMOUTHBASS]

Hi, my platies just had some babies, i saw a little one swimming through the middle of the tank, actually escaping from a gouramies hungry mouth!!! So i got out my net and was searching for him in the tank i finally caught him and noticed he was hiding with another one, then a few mins later i found the third one, by the time i got them all i foun i have 5 in all, so they are now in a nursery net thing that clips to the side of the tank, ive nevr raised fry before so any tips will be very helpull!!! i am currently crushing flakes into almost power so they can eat, what else sghoul i do for them??? also how many fry do they usually give birth to as i am curious, i wonder if there were any others who got eaten or if i foun them all??? thanks for all help

[TKOS]

Well mine just had babies 2 days ago as well. I have found 4 of them. I think Daddy platy had a little snack of the others, though I don't know how many that is. I haven't put mine in protective custody but there is plenty of vegitation for them to hide in. So far I just make sure that some of the food I put in is crushed really well. But in the end it is survival of the fitest in my Platy tank.

[OrionGirl]

Most live bearers will have anywhere from 10-20 babies at a time. The young can be fed on finely crushed flake food, with the occassional addition of crumbled hard boiled egg yolk. This gives them a boost in protein. Don't feed this every day, or very much at a time, as it can quickly pollute a tank. A heavily planted tank provides protective hiding places as well as macrofauna the fry can consume. Floating plants are usually preferred since the young instinctively swim at the surface.

[tricksterpup]

Any where from 5-50, depending on your fish. If you have a planted tank, that will give them plenty of time to hide. As for food, you are doing fine. Give them a good mixture of different types of flake foods crushed. I would also place a piece of Hornwort in with the fry. This will allow them to pick and eat micro organisms from the plants.
jim

[LMOUTHBASS]

crushed up flake food is ok for them??? how often shoul i feed them??? right now i'm thinking once a day, but shoul i give them more???

[OrionGirl]

Planted tank? If yes, then feeding once should be enough. Unplanted, you won't have as much micro fauna for them to graze on, and you'll want to feed more than once a day.

Keeping them in the nursery net is only a short term solution--they will quickly outgrow it and need a safe place to grow. This will happen before they can safely be introduced to the main tank...

[LMOUTHBASS]

tank semi planted its half pklants half plastic plants, they are in the nursery net for now becuase they are so small they are barely visible!!! so i know they will get eaten as soon as they are to big to get eaten i will put them in the main tank , they willhave plenty of spots to hide because i have a lot of planst etc, i just have them in the safety net for now becuase they are so small n i woul feel very guilty if they got eaten when i know i coul save them - how long will they take to grow i think they were born on sat

[OrionGirl]

That's my point--they won't be large enough to avoid being eaten for at least 3-4 WEEKS, and they can't be in the net that long.

[tricksterpup]

It depends on a lot of factors from temp to feeding regime. It could be a few weeks to a month. But live bearer fry grow pretty fast and will greedly try and steal food from the adults. What you could do in the mean time is setup a 10 gallon or 5 gallon tank for the fry. I would go with an incandesent bulb hood, reason why, go out to walmart and buy the 10 watt pc fluoscent bulb. Here the bulb runs under $5, a great deal compared to others of that size. This way you can get yourself some plants and make a mini plant tank. Hornwort is by far my favorite for live bearer tanks. This is a nice bushy plant that allows the fry to hide in comfort and it floats on the top.

As for foods, I give my fish, a mixture of a vegi flake along with a regular tropical flake. I usually will buy OSI flake, it is a food that works well with my stock. I have found picky fish will eat it.
In this crushed mix, i even add a couple of tbl spoons of HIKARI's freeze dried Daphina. I keep this in a spice shaker that I picked up at a local grocery store. This gives the little guys a variety of things to eat. I sometimes will feed this to my adults too, but its their usual feeding fare anyway.

What size tank do you have? As time goes on, you may want to either setup a platy only tank (the breeder in me) or past them on to your friends and start the addiction in someone else. I am starting to do that with my Endlers, Least killies, and Mollies. ;) heck if you lived in MN, i would even pass some your way. But I need to get a larger population of least killies before they are fully given out. :)
jim

[TKOS]

In my tank (planted and platy only) the little guys have decided today is a good day to venture forth and join in with the adults. We will see how this fares. They have started going after flakes of food three times their size. Funny little things.

[LMOUTHBASS]

i guess i have some options, i have a hospital/quarantine tank set up i coul put my fry in, i have the tabnk up n running, in the past i have put a sick or new fish in there, but i am reluctant to take the babies out of the water they are used to, so for now they are in the nursery net which, is pretty big compared to them, however i dont have any thing such as plants in the net with them, maybe i will try to put some in there so they will feel more comfortable if you think this is a good idea, my tank is a 20g with tons of hiding places, however i really wanna see these lil guyts survive its my first batch of fry ever, the funny thing is that i am not going for a platy tank, i just happen to have a few in there, but i will see how this goes , setting up A seperatr 10 isnt out of the possibilities, i plan on letting these guys out of the net soon, as they are big enough not to get eaten by their peers, i thought i coul keep them in their nursery net for about 3 weeks, but oriongirl makes me think otherwise - ummm so i guess i coul move them to a seperate tank, also i have seen them eating at the flake foods i have crushed up for them, it seems like they can barely eat this stuff, but they tug at it a little i am trying to make this as small as possible, but hopefully i think theyre getting some of it!!! well i think i will nurse them in their little net for now n see how it goes, maybe in the week or so they will be bigger n i'll let em out into the tank, i have a peacefull set up so i think theyll be ok guess we'll see

[LMOUTHBASS]

my typing is often sloppy as im working when i post most messages and write sort of quickly!!!

[LMOUTHBASS]

what i meant to say in my long post was that as soon as they are big enough i will be moving them out of the net as the net is in my tank!!! sorry for the confusion, thanks to all who replied