Platy Questions
 

Hey all, been lurking for a few weeks. Finally got the tank cycled (more on this later) and had a few questions about a gold platy I just got from a LFS.

Does this one look pregnant to you?

http://i.imgur.com/TSVC5.jpg

She was in a tank with a few other males. The other gold platy I got does not have the extended belly like this one does. Also, if she goes up near the light, I can see a bunch of what look like bubbles with dots where her scales are translucent. I'm assuming those are the fry.. is that correct?

Also, I added some Tetra Safe Start a few days before I added these two gold platys. The ammonia went up to 0.5ppm and the nitrite spiked to 2ppm from 0ppm. Should I return these fish until they both go back down to zero? Once the ammonia levels went down to 0ppm, I figured I was ready to add fish, but I guess the bacteria colony wasn't big enough yet.. help?

Thanks in advance.

If the female platy was in tank with males then she is no doubt pregnant.(Is what they do)
If the tank had/has cycled,,then two platy's should not have caused ammonia or nitrites to rise unless the tank is smaller than 20 gal and or fish are being overfed (easy to do).
If you keep the fish,,then perhap's daily water changes of 35 to 50 percent with dechlorinator such as PRIME would be wise move(for fishes sake).
Feed the two fish once a day, and tiny amount until the tank has matured(cycled).
Adding some floating plant's such as water sprite or Pennywort can help also.

Sorry, should have mentioned, it's a 30 gallon tank.

I think it's just the overfeeding. I'll lower that and report back in a few days. Thanks.

She still hasn't dropped the fry. I don't think it's dropsy - none of the scales are sticking out. This fish has been in the tank for 36 days now.. not quite sure what to think

I have platy's that look fat all the time. Platy's are not skinny fish anyways.
As long as she is eating well, ( I know) and looks happy she should be fine. She is a very nice looking twin bar.

Okay. She might just be porky. Here's a few photos that I just took:

http://i.imgur.com/g816Q.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/fvXWv.jpg

Tank parameters:

pH: 7.6
Temp: 75 F
Ammonia: 0-0.1 ppm (I think it's at zero, the liquid test kit is hard to tell)
Nitrites: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 5 ppm

I'm kinda used to guppies, so I could be wrong but she does look kind of pregnant. I've heard that the gestation period for platys is 4-7 weeks so you could still have some time left before she gives birth.

7 weeks? Wow. Okay.. I guess I'll keep waiting

Thats what I've heard. Though, most places say about 28 days. It is possible that she did just eat too much. :) just keep an eye out. If she keeps getting bigger she is definitely pregnant.

I have been breeding guppies, mollies and platy's for a long time now and not once have I ever had a platy go for 7 weeks so not quite sure where Dragon got that from! No offense just must of gotten some bad intel somewhere. The longest one of my platy's has gone is 30 days. Their gestational period is just 28 days the same with mollys and then guppies are 20-22 days.

To me she doesn't look very pregnant. When she goes into the light and you said you can see the little translucent balls with black spots those are her eggs with the fry starting to form. Once platy's do get pregnant they get super fat super fast. And that is just because they eat everything they possibly can. I would say cut back a little on how much you feed them because you don't want them to get dropsy.

Have you noticed any change in her bathroom habits? If she is going long stringy clear poops then she is constipated. I would suggest even if not you can do this because I do this on all my tanks once a week to make sure all of my fish stay regular. On their next feeding instead of giving then flakes or pellets give them peas. I buy the cheapest bag of frozen peas at the grocery store bring them home put a couple in a little container with some water in it them microwave them for about 30 seconds. Then run them under cold water until they are cool. Squeeze them lightly to pop out the insides and toss the shells because they can't eat those. Then mush them just a little so that there are several pieces that they can eat (fit in their mouths). That will get her to go if she is having that issue and getting fatter because she can't go on top of being pregnant.

I do think though if at all she is in the early stages of pregnancy from those pictures you posted. Since she is light colored when the eyes of the fry start to show you will see them for sure. Then also when she is ready to drop you will see her gravid spot with no problem. But like I said to me she looks early stage of pregnancy if she is pregnant and if not then you need to cut back the feeding amount some and then I would try the peas.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions you can pm me. Good luck and keep us up to date!! :-)