Tropical Fish Keeping banner

Platy Fry!

2K views 9 replies 5 participants last post by  alysalouise 
#1 ·
So about a week ago I bought a pregnant platy form the store and she dropped today while I was at class. I found some half-eaten fry in the rocks and so forth when I got home. Since then, I placed the fry (about 10 or so of them) in a nursery tank. I've lost a few to swim bladder, but the rest seem to be doing well. I grind up topical fish flakes into a fine powder. Is this okay? I am a college student, so i can't be spending a lot of money. I've kept tropical fish before, but never bred before. So, any sugestions to a newbie breeder?
 
#3 ·
Congrats on the fry :-D Grinding up fish flakes to a fine powder will work, as long as the pieces are small enough to be able to fit into the mouth of the fry. As for a nursey tank what are you doing for a setup? Are you using a seperate tank, or are you using a breeder net? If you have a seperate tank I would suggest doing 10% water changes every day or other day. This will help in keeping the water condition good for the fry and will promote growth. The next thing is to figure out what you will want to do with the fry once they get larger, along with any other fry that comes later on.
 
#4 ·
+1 on the First Bites. Newborn fry have a hard time with the small ground up flakes (at least mine did).

I found First Bites at Petco and Petsmart and they aren't expensive.

Congrats. on your fry :)
 
#5 ·
+1 on the First Bites. Newborn fry have a hard time with the small ground up flakes (at least mine did).

I found First Bites at Petco and Petsmart and they aren't expensive.

Congrats. on your fry :)

Very inexpensive, I found though, if you can grinde your flake food to just as fine as a powder and mix the 2 together it helps make the first bites last longer
I like doing that also because my flake food is a color enhancer too
 
#6 ·
in the tank i had growing up, i had green swordtails, and they had fry all the time. we never did anything special for them for food, and never had a shortage of them. any that managed to stay hidden in the floating fake plants (the oversized pleco made sure nothing stayed in the substrate) survived to the point that that tank was always overcrowded, even with giving fish away frequently.
 
#7 ·
re

Thanks for all the advice. At the moment, the fry are in a bare bottom aquarium away from the other fish until they get bigger. When they're old enough, I plan on selling then to the local pet stores, and to my dormmates. Everyone has fish up here, and platys are one of the most popular breeds, along with betas and Mollys. And with 10% water changes, would I have to use water conditioner for that, or would they be fine?
 
#10 ·
Yes you will want to use a water conditioner when you change out the water. Sounds like you have a good setup for the fry. It is amazing how they will change, one day they are small and are all eyes, the next thing you know they are looking more like minatures of their parents.

I have to say platys are the cutest when they're little, I have 3 or 4 right now in a tank full of 30+ guppy fry, and the only way i can tell them apart is because their orange, well one is gray, but is shaped different and is the biggest fry i have right now (Everyone is about a week old)

But Im pretty sure Barb will agree on the (infact i think i learned this from Barb)
Daily water changes on your fry tank will give you fast and healthy growing fry
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top