[LongTimeAquarist]

When do female platys stop popping out babies? Since may, I have a female that have been popping out babies in separate intervals. The first time, I've moved her from a 20g to a 10g tank, thinking that it was over when I've seen six babies in the 20g, but either once or twice a month, I keep spotting new babies in the 10g. While 4 or 5 of the babies will be given away to people with an aquarium, and soon the ones in the 10g when they get enough, I'm hoping Ma will be done popping now, or ASAP, because the last thing I need is for her to restock what I don't need. And right now I'm running a big risk because even though Pa croaked, I have two male platies, but they're a different variation, or breed or whatever, of the female, and I'm not sure if they'll crossbreed and give me some kind of hybrid of colors or they'll leave each other alone. Either way, would somebody tell me how to tell if Ma is done popping because the last thing I need is to find out that I'm unintentionally going through some kind of record.

 

[Sylverclaws]

Well, there are no different "Breeds" of platy(Unless you count the variatus, and I'm not positive on that one....). Though there are different variations, they're all the same species and all of them can breed. ^^; So if you have males with females, they're breeding, even if the boys are young! Once there are no males, females usually run out of steam after three to five months, however they CAN continue for up to a year. It's unlikely, but possible for them to go that long. And again, they can have two or more broods per month, though that again is more rare and usually done in smaller batches of one to twenty.

 

[LongTimeAquarist]

Yeah, will the sad thing is I want to have more fish, but I don't want it to be mostly platys, so right now I'm stuck on hold. While I could still buy new ones and not worry too much about any new babies popping out since I've got plenty of hiding places, the only worry being the ghost shrimp I have in the 20g tank, the last thing I need is for my tanks to look like the tanks at most petstores and Walmart, where they almost pack the whole tank to full capacity.

 

[Sylverclaws]

I got swamped and ran out of tank space, put a kiddie pool in my basement and filtered and heated it. Raised them there. When I get too many babies anyways(I have a five gal, two ten gallons, a twenty, and two 73 gal pools), I wait until they're two weeks old and then I sell them on ebay, grow the rest to a better size and sell them. It SOUNDS like a huge step, all difficult...but once you figure it out, it's quite easy and people do like buying fry. They pay for shipping and the fish, you send them in a nice box and get your labels on there for a nice discount, and you get a little money for your troubles. Try that. It's not as scary as it sounds. It took me forever to get comfortable and just go for it, I was happy I did. I make about a hundred and fifty dollars a month, mostly on just fry. Well, sure it's slow sometimes and I only get around thirty dollars, but that's something and it's more room, and a lot of those babies go to good homes if you state you wish them to be pets and not feeders, and also that they're not the type to be feeders. =)
If you feel up to it, it's an idea. You can also use plastic bins with a little filter and heater if you run out of tank space too. Use water and a bit of filter media from your current set up. That is, if you're able to wherever you live, I know some places like apartments don't allow that, and some just don't have enough space for it, but it's some ideas. Look around, find space ideal things you can do so you don't get swamped.

 

[LongTimeAquarist]

Nah, if I can, I'll just keep giving them to people with fish tanks who want them and when Ma is tapped out, I'll just cross my fingers and hope I don't go through a repeat. If she becomes reloaded, I'll donate her to the aquaculture department in my college and I'm pretty sure the students there would love to take some pets home to their tanks, all though I'll make sure to through in the condition that they don't become food for an Oscar or any other fish.