Premature birth survival odds?

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Nepherael

Nepherael

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So about 3 days ago my girlfriend bought a couple platies, one of which was pregnant. Today she gave birth and died right after. All the babies still have their egg sacs attached and can swim but look nothing like any fry pics I can find or any other livebearer I've seen born.

So what are the survival odds of these babies? Should I feed them or leave them to absorb their egg sacs?
 
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XanAvaloni

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wow. never heard of such an event, much less seen it, and I had platys for several years.

In the wild of course their odds of survival would be effectively zero. So whatever genetic defect caused the event would not be passed on, thereby making such an event extremely rare. You are in pretty much uncharted territory here, let us know how it turns out.

Best bet I would think would be to get some Hikari First Bites or equivalent, and put a very small amount in with the preemies. I assume you have them in a separate tank or at least isolated somehow? You don't say what other tankmates they have but isolation would be ideal. They are not really designed to be independent at this stage but if they don't have enough instinct or reflex to eat there's not much you can do for them.

good luck and keep us updated. :)
 
Nepherael

Nepherael

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Yeah they're isolated in a breeding chamber. I'll toss some first bites in (I keep that stuff handy as I'm always raising fry of some sort) They are alive and will swim just not for long periods of time (probably because they're still supposed to be on their moms womb lol).

Well this is interesting, I'll keep the thread updated then with how it goes. I'm not sure what caused the premature birth. At first I thought it was stress, we bought the 2 female platies and they were the only platies in the tank (with other fish like mollies and guppies) but were very skittish and hid all the time. We have never seen fish act like that before. Maybe it was some sort of defect though
 
excuzzzeme

excuzzzeme

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As long as they have the egg sack you don't need to feed them. Once they have absorbed the egg you can then begin to feed. Hikari First Bites as mentioned is a very good choice to start them on. Take a pinch between your fingers and release under the water surface. Don't drop on top of the water surface as it will take forever for it to sink. As an alternative, you can crush you regular food until it is almost powder and feed that.
 
Nepherael

Nepherael

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Yeah that's what I Remember reading about the egg sacks. It seems I have 4 live ones and at least 5 others that seem dead but not too sure about. They're in a very small enclosure so we will see how it goes
 
Nepherael

Nepherael

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My girlfriend told me she counted 5 of them alive this morning with a fungus attack on the others (it was hard to tell who was alive so now that we know I will remove the dead ones)

I'm honestly very surprised these fish are alive still. Very very surprised!

Should I make a video log of this?

Sent from my Droid Incredible using the Monster Aquaria Network app
 
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XanAvaloni

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how many were there to begin with? Meant to ask this before and forgot.

and as to the video...hmm, what's the polite form of "well, DUH!"....oh yeah: "Pix or it didnt' happen."

on third thought maybe a simple "Why yes please, that would be lovely!" would be the politer way to say this. :)
 
Nepherael

Nepherael

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Ahahaha. Made me laugh. Yeah I Jist uploaded 2 videos. Crappy quality but got em XD there was between 9-12 when she died (maybe more but she may have dropped them in the big tank before she was transferred)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_HsIoH-LiM

Thats video 1, video 2 shows a crappy view of the ones I just removed that we're attacked by fungus. If there's anything specific I should cover in the vids let me know ^^
 
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