Are my girls pregnant?

Rooski

So I was wondering if my 2 Red Wag Platy girls are pregnant or just fat? I have some pictures of them but they aren't very good but they are decent I think. If they are pregnant can you tell when they could have babies or not. I just got them a week ago so I don't know anything about fish pregnancy. I do have some thick plants in the tank so the babies have somewhere to hide but I just am wondering if they are pregnant or just fat lol.











Thanks, Tiffany

Highland lake13

I think your fish are pregant. If you bought the fish a the fish had the males with the females i would say their pregant. Also you can see the fry starting to form in the females. In order for the fish to be that fat in a week is almost impossible.

aunt kymmie

Tifffany-

Are your plants real or silk??

Kym

fish_4_all

Is tough to tell from the pictures. The best way to tell is to look at their belies right in fornt of the vent. If it is getting blacker in color and/or you can see different colored spots in that area then they could well be prego.

Birth usually happens within 3-5 days of the vent area squaring off. Basically it will look like the belly is dropping down so the vent is almost straight out instead of streamline with the body.

Rooski

Thank you to everyone who replied to this. I have the 2 females and the one male and from what I've heard it's hard to keep platys in that combination and not wind up with babies at some point. I think they are pregnant and if I do see babies in the tank I have another tank already set up for the babies so they don't get eaten. I only have one real plant in the tank the rest are all fake ones. I hope I am a Grandmommy soon to a whole bunch of baby fish!

Anxiously Awaiting,
Tiff

Tyyrlym

The first question to ask if you think your fish are pregnant is thus:
Are they livebearers?
If the answer is yes then yes, they are pregnant.

The only way to ensure that your livebearers aren't pregnant is to quarantine the females by themselves for two months. After that time they will have likely had all the fry they are going to from the last male they mated with. Alternately you can separate out the females after birth and isolate them.

Of course this goes out the window if you have males in the tank. If there are you can be sure the females are in some stage of pregnancy almost at all times.

Oldman47

Tyyrlym, the fish can carry sperm packets for 6 months that I am aware of. That means it will take on average 6 drops before you can be confident that the fry actually come from the latest makting.