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Well, my platy fry that have been in the 10g in the kitchen are finally growing up... so I have been gradually moving them into the 55g community tank. I started out by moving 5 of them, leaving the 6 smaller ones in the nursery for a few more weeks of maturing. So far, no one has been eaten, even though I think my gold gourami could fit them in her mouth pretty easily. But they are pretty good at hiding (and smart enough to hang out by the filter at feeding time). Just wanted to share with someone (as none of my friends would care-they're not into fish).
And to give a little background, when we bought the 55g and set it up I used my adult platies to cycle it... then I went to carefully do a gravel vac one day on my 10g which at the time had 3 fry, about a month old or so... and found a ton more fry, they obviously had been born right before I moved the adults out so they escaped being eaten. Well, when I finally got a count on them there were approx. 15 of them... and now we have 11 remaining. The rest of my fry have all been born in the community tank, so I've only had 2 or 3 survive each time... darwin at work.

Anyhow, just enjoying my pretty platies... although I am kind of overrun with them.

-Beth


[span class="edited"][Edited by bscal 2004-07-25 07:51][/span]

will the pet shop not take any from you they buy them from me !

I know what you mean... Friends not being into fish --- Oh, they will listen - and one friend even asks a few questions here and there - but none of them are really into it..... I also understand what you mean about platy fry... From other threads, you probably know that I have a 20 gal tank with about 40 platy fry (give or take - haven't ever really been able to count them!)..... They were actually born in a separate tank with the mother being removed.... Anyway, they're about 3/4" long now and VERY active! I also have an Opaque Male Betta Splendens in the tank - who usually hides in his cave - probably to get away from all the "kids"! But actually, they seem to get along fine with one another.... My Betta will flare and give a half hearted chase at times, but no damage has ever been done to any of the fish and NO deaths!
My lfs, Jack's Aquarium, is more than willing to take the platy fry once they attain a size of at least 1".... I would assume that due to quantity and quality I will receive some type of store credit - because that's what they've done in the past... but if not, OH WELL! (Another idea that I have is to offer my fish on a site as free but charging to ship ---- but I've been too lazy to really check out how feasible this would be...)
ENJOY YOUR BABIES! (Don't you get a big kick out of feeding time? My fry form what looks similiar to a bee swarm - especially when there's brine shrimp! FEEDING FRENZY!!!!)

To thine own self be true...

Yeah, feeding time is pretty funny... they can be hiding in the plants and the second I open the lid, they are there, ready for the buffet line. I have a female betta in my fry tank and she's the same way, occasionally looks at them like "go on, get out of the way" but she tolerates them well. Oh, and I don't want to get rid of any yet... although a coworker of my husband's wants some for his community tank so I'll give him some of my larger ones. But we also have 3 tanks so for now we have room for them. And we do not remove the females to a birthing tank so from now on it's whoever survives. That does cut the population down a bit. Oh, and the last time I mentioned my platy fry to a friend she said, "oh, they're just fish, flush them if they have more". I was disgusted.

-Beth

how horrible!