[littlec]

Hello,

I have a 30 gallon fresh water tank and have had it stocked with red wag platies for several months. I originally purchased 3 red wag platies from pet smart. Two were male, one was female. I didn't know anything about breeding at the time so as every fish expert knows, the female had lots of babies. Eventually I gave away all of the babies and the dominate male because he was driving my female and me crazy. The male that was left was very sweet. He treated the female very nicely. She had a couple more sets of babies and then she passed unexpectedly. Some of the last set of babies were shaped differently. Like a genetic defect. I was wondering if anyone has seen this before and if you knew what caused it. I don't think there could have been any in-breeding because none of the babies were mature enough to mate. It was just the one female and one male. Was it because she had so many? Or because she was old? Here is a video of the largest J shaped baby. I call her Quasimodo.

DSCN1103_zpsed9a9442.mp4 Video by little_c22 | Photobucket

 

[henningc]

Hi, hate to tell you the platys have a spinal curviture due to inbreeding. It is common in todays mass produced fish. Steps to take:

If you want to breed more platys, one of the parents must go. If not look forward t more of the same. You can get them from different sources like Consolidated Fish Farm or Aquabid. I'd get males and females from different places. Don't allow the normal looking siblings to breed. They will possess the bad genes and continue the problem. You may also encounter some fry that swim very straight and stiff as if their spine is fused, it is and same reason. If you just want a tank full of fish, get rid of the messedup fish and keep the normal looking ones. After about two years everything will be a mess and you can start over.