My mother has a 5.5g quarantine tank that she uses to house arrivals prior to them being placed in her 29g. Her two latest additions are two gold twinbar platies, a male & a female.
Tonight she was watching the female go up and down the side of the tank, wriggle a little, and then stop ... and swore she saw something teensy zipping around the tank, and was like nah, my imagination. Then again ... and again ... and now she 15-20 little platy fry!
I personally don't have livebearer experience, and after looking through posts here, I had a few basic questions so I can help her with the new fishies ...
1. We are temporarily using a small breeder net in the 5.5g. The female appears to be finished birthing, so she's out and about in the tank ... we've put in some small squares of plastic breeding grass so any fry that were lost in the shuffle can have a safe hiding place. Does that sound about right for the time being?
2. By tomorrow morning or early afternoon, we're going to set up her spare 2.5g Minibow as a nursery. (A larger tank for the fry is not an option -- for some reason, she would rather have counter space, furniture, money, etc rather than fish equipment ... the savages in this town ... LOL) That tank has a small HOB filter. I'd read about placing sponge around the filter intake to prevent fry from being slurped up. Would the mesh from a small fish net be an acceptable substitute? Not sure of the best way to affix it to the intake, if that would work out. We thought of this method as our LFS may not have a good sponge or corner filter ... and I would not trust its employees to recommend anything.
3. As noted, the 5.5g is a quarantine tank, and its current adult inhabitants will be going to the 29g sometime later in the week. Some platy fry may very well be left behind. Would it be advisable to set up that tank's intake to prevent fry from getting caught in it? Maybe we should do that now, before the adults are transferred, if it wouldn't impede filtration?
Thanks in advance to one and all who are able to take a minute to help out here :thm:
Bryant
Tonight she was watching the female go up and down the side of the tank, wriggle a little, and then stop ... and swore she saw something teensy zipping around the tank, and was like nah, my imagination. Then again ... and again ... and now she 15-20 little platy fry!
I personally don't have livebearer experience, and after looking through posts here, I had a few basic questions so I can help her with the new fishies ...
1. We are temporarily using a small breeder net in the 5.5g. The female appears to be finished birthing, so she's out and about in the tank ... we've put in some small squares of plastic breeding grass so any fry that were lost in the shuffle can have a safe hiding place. Does that sound about right for the time being?
2. By tomorrow morning or early afternoon, we're going to set up her spare 2.5g Minibow as a nursery. (A larger tank for the fry is not an option -- for some reason, she would rather have counter space, furniture, money, etc rather than fish equipment ... the savages in this town ... LOL) That tank has a small HOB filter. I'd read about placing sponge around the filter intake to prevent fry from being slurped up. Would the mesh from a small fish net be an acceptable substitute? Not sure of the best way to affix it to the intake, if that would work out. We thought of this method as our LFS may not have a good sponge or corner filter ... and I would not trust its employees to recommend anything.
3. As noted, the 5.5g is a quarantine tank, and its current adult inhabitants will be going to the 29g sometime later in the week. Some platy fry may very well be left behind. Would it be advisable to set up that tank's intake to prevent fry from getting caught in it? Maybe we should do that now, before the adults are transferred, if it wouldn't impede filtration?
Thanks in advance to one and all who are able to take a minute to help out here :thm:
Bryant
