Baby Platys

[Averus]

So yeah I got a bunch of baby Varitus Platys.

My tank is a 55 gallon that I am still stocking.  Went through a nasty bit of ich before, which is now thankfully taken care of. 

Right now I have some Black Neon Tetras in addition to four adult Varitus Platys and one juvenile Varitus, who was born during the outbreak and managed to survive the the ich and treatment, who looks female, she has started getting color and it looks like she has the little fan fin.

When I was feeding the other day I noticed a ton of new babies, and apparently my tank has such good hiding places with my wood and plants, that the adults didn't eat them.

So here's the thing, I need to figure out how to deal with my baby issues.  I had expected the adults to handle it, but yeah that didn't work.

I was planning to get some Gouramis down the road, could they control the population?  The current batch looks like they are now too big for the other fish to go after, I just hope they don't add to much to my bioload.  I was going to get some Cory's next, but can push them to further in the future if need be.

There is an extra thing here.  Right now my quarantine has some tetras that will be added to the main tank this weekend.  However, I do not want get any fish till after Labor Day here in the US, since I will be on vacation the week before and I don.t want any fish in quarantine while I am away.  The main tank will be cared for fine, but I really don't want to put the responsibility on watching the quarantine on my fish sitter.

I am a little worried about the male to female ratio too, right now I just had one adult male, and the rest were females.

Anyone have advice on dealing with Platy baby booms?

[ARMYVET]

Congratulations on the successful births.  I wish I was near you.  I would take them from you.  I am looking for some Variatus Platys right now...LOL

The Gouramis  will definitely handle the problem in the future and you will have some nice looking Gouramis...lol

1 male to 3 females is a breeders dream come true...lol  What type of filtrations does this tank have?

Oh and take some pics....we love pics!

 

[Hobbit]

I’ve been surprised (pleasantly surprised in my case!) how little my adult platys seem to prey on their babies.

I think larger gouramis would help keep the population lower, but honestly, the tetras may take care of the problem for you. I’m guessing the ones you have are too small to eat any platy babies yet, but once they get a bit of size on them, they will very much enjoy chasing them down. 😎

[B1gJ4k3]

Talk to your local fish store. Once you grow them out to a sellable size, they might take them for cash/store credit. I currently have about 40 red wag platies that I'm growing out for that scenario.

[laritheloud]

I would check with your fish store. I don't have breeding livebearers yet, but I plan to keep and breed a platy strain in my 55 gallon, and I think I'll be selling my extras. 

I'm also finding it very unreliable to depend on fish to prey on fry or eggs. I have a very prolific school of Diamond Tetras, and in the four months I've kept them they have nearly doubled the school from 6 to 11 fish even WITH three honey gouramis and one thicklipped gourami in the tank with them. I keep finding more and more fry... Bioload seems all right so far as my nitrates are under control and I'm not adding any more stock to that tank. Sigh.

 

Edited July 27, 2021 by laritheloud

[laritheloud]

On 7/27/2021 at 2:13 PM, Hobbit said:

I’ve been surprised (pleasantly surprised in my case!) how little my adult platys seem to prey on their babies.

I think larger gouramis would help keep the population lower, but honestly, the tetras may take care of the problem for you. I’m guessing the ones you have are too small to eat any platy babies yet, but once they get a bit of size on them, they will very much enjoy chasing them down. 😎

I wish my tetras would take care of my tetra problem for me 🤣

[Averus]

I have been using a Seachem Tidal, and the babies do not seem to have a problem with it, I do have the flow set to low and it isn't clogged atm either, I did a cleaning last weekend.  I think I may just have seen the result of two of the females birthing around the same time, right now I have so few Black Neons in there they couldn't get them all.

Everyone in the tank looks very happy and healthy after the ich, and all of them have grown a bit.

I have also attached some pictures of the adults, the juvenile is still too small and quick.  Not the best quality,, and I got two of the male, he's the high fin.

 

[Wonder Boy]

+1 for talking to a LFS 

Probably obvious, would you want to rearrange to make less hiding areas? 

[Averus]

Main issue is most of my hiding spots are the plants, I have had pretty good growth with most my plants.  The only real big one is the azala root, which was supposed to for my Corys when I get them.

It is also near the filter intake, and the fry are doing fine by it.

I will likely bring the when they get older to the store, I hope they can get a good home that way.  Still keeping the female juvenile, just cause of her birth during the outbreak was the biggest bright spot, not white spot mind you, during then.  She is getting some pretty gold color on her too now.