Question about pregnant Platy

[JazzyB]

Just wondering if anyone here has had what seems to be a pregnant platy for months on end?

I've had a platy with one male for a number of months. It didn't take long, as most livebearers don't, to get pregnant. She's been "bursting at the seams" for a long time but to date no fry seen. I say seen because it's possible she dropped the load and they were eaten. But she still looks like she's holding.

Any ideas.

JazzyB

 

[Blinky]

I've got one female calico platy who I call 'the wierd one'...
She ALWAYS has eye spots - not just a gravid spot, but individual eyes of the fry can be seen through her white belly. The strange thing is, she gives birth to only one, sometimes two babies at a time (I've had her isolated in a heavily planted tank and watched her like a hawk, and when she finally gives birth it really is to only one or two fry and then no more for 2 to 4 weeks).
She's back in with the general population now, and once or twice I've seen her go from huge to much thinner overnight and the angel's not too interested in breakfast, so I assume she's dropped at least four or five fry, but she's constantly pregnant.
Platys CAN clench - if your girl doesn't feel secure giving birth, she can and will hold onto her fry for a while. If you can't isolate her, maybe you could put some java moss or an artificial plant with fine leaves to give her (and the fry) a place to escape her tankmates.

 

[cohazard]

When I wanted to keep the fry from one of my pregnant platies in a community tank, this is what I did. I got one of those plastic breeding boxes with the hole in the bottom for the babies to fall into (that doesn't work BTW). I took out the angled piece and filled the box with pearlweed (Jmoss can be substituted among others, just don't use plastic plants). Then I put the pregnant female in there. She didn't have much room to move so she struggled for a little bit and then calmed down.

When she droped the fry, I had 14 survive (not sure how many were born total, but 14 is a lot). I left them with the plants (took out the mother) and started feeding them tetras livebearer food. When they started growing, every week I'd take out a little bit of pearlweed, eventually removing all of it when they fry started to get their red and yellow colors, and started showing hints of black markings at the base of the tail fin.

I dunno, that's just what worked really well for me, you should give it a try if you're interested in keeping fry from livebearers in a community and you don't have a spare tank. Just be careful when you do water changes. I wasn't paying attention and the ripples from the water change pushed the box over to the filter outflow and the box sunk and all the fry were eaten by the kribs, angel, gourami, etc...

Good luck,

Serg

 

[DanioSan]

Ah so now I see another importance in the inch/gallon space rule..the mother platy needs to feel secure enought to drop most of her fry.