After a female platy gives birth, will her stomach shrink right away? Is there any way of telling that she's done?

[Thomas]

I currently have 7 pregnant platys in a 20 gallon tall, that are due in 2 weeks. The tank is packed from the middle to top with Elodea. I don't have gravel at the bottom, but I did put in pieces of PVC piping/connectors (~25), like 3 big fist fist sized rocks, and a little tower filled with holes too small for an adult to fit through.

All my platys are part of the same brood, so I assume that all the females got pregnant around the same time, since all the males matured at the same time as well. June 11th was when I first saw a male and a female going at it. So I would like to scoop out the female as soon as she's done giving birth, but with 7 in the same tank, I imagine that it's going to be pretty tough to find out which one already given birth.

[Fish Folk]

On 6/20/2021 at 8:03 PM, Thomas said:

I currently have 7 pregnant platys in a 20 gallon tall, that are due in 2 weeks. The tank is packed from the middle to top with Elodea. I don't have gravel at the bottom, but I did put in pieces of PVC piping/connectors (~25), like 3 big fist fist sized rocks, and a little tower filled with holes too small for an adult to fit through.

All my platys are part of the same brood, so I assume that all the females got pregnant around the same time, since all the males matured at the same time as well. June 11th was when I first saw a male and a female going at it. So I would like to scoop out the female as soon as she's done giving birth, but with 7 in the same tank, I imagine that it's going to be pretty tough to find out which one already given birth.

This can be a challenge. You might be able to tell which are less “boxed up.” They generally drop their fry within 24 hrs.

Are you trying to preserve fry? Is that why you want to move the adults? Can you post a few photos of your tank? 

[Thomas]

Hiya, thanks for replying. Here's what the tank looks like and yes, I'm trying to save as many as possible for my 40 gallon. I actually have 8 pregnant females, but I left 1 in the main 40 gallon to see how her fry will turn out.

[Thomas]

On 6/20/2021 at 5:20 PM, Fish Folk said:

This can be a challenge. You might be able to tell which are less “boxed up.” They generally drop their fry within 24 hrs.

Are you trying to preserve fry? Is that why you want to move the adults? Can you post a few photos of your tank? 

Ah shoot. I didn't know how to do the quote thing and forgot to do it as well. I couldn't delete my previous reply, so I'm just going to leave this here.

[Fish Folk]

On 6/20/2021 at 8:54 PM, Thomas said:

Hiya, thanks for replying. Here's what the tank looks like and yes, I'm trying to save as many as possible for my 40 gallon. I actually have 8 pregnant females, but I left 1 in the main 40 gallon to see how her fry will turn out.

Alrighty. Here’s a trick I learned from a pro breeder...

Get a large piece of darice mesh, and bend it into your tank like this:

Place your adults / pregnant Livebearers inside with a sponge filter, and put loads of plants outside:

Or like this:

Fry will instinctively try to escape the parents, and swim through the darice mesh to safety among the plants on the other side.

For your 20 gal, you may need to lower the water level to get below the height of the darice sheet.

[Thomas]

On 6/20/2021 at 6:07 PM, Fish Folk said:

Alrighty. Here’s a trick I learned from a pro breeder...

Get a large piece of darice mesh, and bend it into your tank like this:

Place your adults / pregnant Livebearers inside with a sponge filter, and put loads of plants outside:

Or like this:

Fry will instinctively try to escape the parents, and swim through the darice mesh to safety among the plants on the other side.

For your 20 gal, you may need to lower the water level to get below the height of the darice sheet.

Oh wow! That's such a great idea. Thank you! It's like a giant breeder box.

[Fish Folk]

On 6/20/2021 at 9:09 PM, Thomas said:

Oh wow! That's such a great idea. Thank you! It's like a giant breeder box.

Indeed!