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Well not much has been going on on this forum lately soooo..... I decided to start a log on the trials and tribulations of of lifes of the members of my platy colony lol I know you all are probably just so exctied you cant stand it.

Soo... let me introduce the members of the colony. ( Sorry guys no pics, due to crappy camer)

Queen- She is the one who runs the show. She has one offspring who survived the outside world of the tank ( I dont save fry). She is a LARGE Mickey Mouse platy and very beautiful.

The 5 Young Adults- These naughty little kids enjoy annoying Queen. These five youngsters consist of a male who is only about half an inch long, and three females who are all almost an inch long- 2 of wich are pregnant. - one is in "labor" as i type. These youngins are all sunset palties.

Queens baby- A three week old fry who is just joining back up with the herd after spending the first 3 weeks of his/her life in the plants munching on whatever goodies it can find. She is just getting in her mickey mouse ears soo she is a cutie.

Queen is gravid again and should be dropping in another week or so.



I hope you all enjoy this lol. I will be updating it often!
ENJOY

A platy colony log? Hmmmm That's different.

I'm not into platys myself, at least not right now. That is ONE fish that I don't have in my community tank.

But be glad I don't do a log on my tank fish with all the fish I have! It's like a soap opera in there!

And to complete the picture............ I even had a gay guppy!. Seriously........... forget the female guppies.......... he only flirted with totally different species altogether! Seeing as I wanted babies & he was my only male, I gave him away & got another one.

Ok.............. I better quit before you DO hear about my whole tank!

But glad to hear yours is coming along good! They ARE making prettier platys than they used to. Who knows........I might end up with some.

Hi Platy_Punk

Platy's were my 1st fish - I used them to cycle the tank. I have 5 and they are all gold twin bar platys. They are my favourite type. All pure yellow, with a black bar outlining their tail. You don't see them much around where I live - gold twin bar I mean - plenty of mickey mouse, sunset & all the others. They have had many babies since I've had them - but sadly, none have survived the hungry occupants of the tank.

Good luck with yours.

Cheers
TW

A platy colony log? Hmmmm That's different

Lol I know it is different but I wanted to give our livebearer lovers something to read until this forum starts to liven up again.

I'm not into platys myself

Well maybe this log will make you go out abd buy a few!

It's like a soap opera in there!

Lol same here!! AHHH

I have 5 and they are all gold twin bar platys

I have been looking for a few of these myself to add another gene pool to my mickey mouses and my sunsets. I saw a lone one at LFS the other day but he was not for sale as he had ich

UPDATE
As of today the colony is the same. Although there seems to be a breakthrough with Queens lone baby. She has been accepted into the colony. She now swims with them instead of hiding in the plants. As for the females who were close to giving birth last night, tonight one of them is VERY ready! I see a baby in her and it is right at the edge of her "dropping hole" lol. I hope they come tonight. I am thinking of giving the lone baby a name any ideas?

ENJOY!

The Loner... or Lone Wolf...

Chris

Lol well she ( I am pretty sure it is a girl) is no longer alone

I've kept and raised many platies myself. Cool fish to cut your breeding chops on. I have sevel X. maculatus left...my original females that I've had for almost a year and a half and two of their fry. They outran my 29 and I had to give tons away. I had both sunset mickey mouse and blue mickey mouse. I especially loved the blue ones, but I only have one left.

Now, in my 29, I have a colony of breeding blue parrot platies (X. variatus. They are very different looking than your standard platy. I fell in love with them when I saw an article on them in TFH magazine. I got mine off of Aquabid. I started with one male and one female and she gave birth to fry before AI could get her out of the fish bag. They were all alive and well. LOL They hever several young-uns in there now. I will be reading you log and reliving my platy days. LOl I'm breeding S.A. cichlids of all sorts now.

---

~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Lol here is my great (*laughs*) drawing of what I am seeing with my very pregnant young female platy. She is very "boxy" and the little eyes are quite close to birth, if you see what I am saying. Hopefully the illustration will help lol.

http://i11.tinypic.com/3yy6qs3.jpg

P.S Crazyred- lol it is good to hear that at least one person will be keeping up with it!!!

I am thinking of giving the lone baby a name any ideas?

DUH! Patty Platy of course!

Hey Platy punk! I will be monitoring your log. I recently purchased some platys and have 4 fry that I can count in my tank. One in particular has a great hiding place where the big fish can not get him hopefully he can survive. I have Sunset Corals by the way.

"Talk is cheap. Action can be almost as affordable"

Kunzman96- Good luck with raising them! I hope your fry make it to adulthood in the big tank!

UPDATE
Today there is not any difference in the colony. Except that queens baby's mickey mouse marking is getting darker. I am amazed that the two young females have not given birth yet as they are HUGE! And so are the babies inside them.I guess I will not update again until we have some new members to the colony! I am sure it will get more intersesting once the babies are here!
FishPatty- HAHA lol how about Patty?

Well today I was doing a weekly water change on the tank and I turned on the light when I was finished and nothing happend so I tried again so I said "oh the light is just burned out" soo I went to my garage and got a new light and this one didnt work. I went and tried it on my other tanks hood and it was fine. So I also went and tried the "burned out light" on the other hood and it worked too! So turns out my hood crapped out. So I made a mad dash to the LFS and got a new hood. I also got a new light with the hood and it really brings out my platies colors!

Still no fry...........

FishPatty- HAHA lol how about Patty?

That'll work............ but it sounds like you will have to have a lot more P names ready pretty soon.

UPDATE

ok. So today I woke up and took my cat to the vet. I came home and noticed one of the young females was in labor and something was coming out. What came out was just an egg. So I sat there and watched a while and nothing came out. Now I just got home from doing some errands and I was watching her and out came a baby. DEAD. Then shortly after came another. DEAD. And another except this one was alive but I have no idea where it went becasue it decended into the plants and was very very tiny.
Queen has been following her around nipping at her abdomen. Queen is the only one in the colony with the rights to give birth so it is her job to make sure all other babies are taken care of.
I hope at least the one tiny baby lives....I will keep posted if there are anymore....

Ok. Well I went against all that I usually do. I saved the fry. He was soo tiny I had too Lol. No more though.

Ok I let the little fry back out. He regained his streghnth so I put him right back in the plants. I really dont think that he has much of a chance but he is pretty fast and hard to catch so he will be pretty hard for the fish to get. But what I am worried about getting him is the resident ADF. She is very quick at catching fry and she hunts through the plants. But my LFS did not have my gold rams today so he will be safer than he would have been if I would have gotten the rams. But another thing is that he is a browinsh color so he doesnt stadn out too much. I hope I can find him to keep track of him but as of now I can find him.

Oh Punk! It sounds as if fatherhood is wearing on you!

I'm staying away from your post for awhile cause your beginning to make ME nervous too!



Hey! Congratulations Dad!

UPDATE
Ok as of right now I can not find any of the 3 babies. Yes, I said 3. I found 2 more last night. I saw one this morning when I woke the tank up. But havent seen them at all the rest of today. They either in a belly right now or hiding. I am hoping hiding.

Right now I am in planning of the new 55 gallon tank. The colony will be permanent residents of the tank and they will be helping cycle it. So the adventures of the colony will become bigger as wll thier tank.

Hello,

This will be th last "update" today. Lol

Ok so... I saw a baby again today but havent seen him since then. He was haniging around the top so I dont know waht has become of him. I have checked inside the filter toce today just to make sure non were sucked in.


Queen is getting very big again and her oldest fry is about this long ------- at about 5 weeks old. Queen is due to drop more fry at anytime. I am thinking it will be this week.

So far Queen is still the highest ranked member. She eats first, gets her favorite spot to sleep and poop, and she can treat anyone the way she wants too- even her own fry who by the way it is acting doesnt seem like it will have a very high ranking.

The female that dropped yesterday has healed up great and is back to her old self. She is puttign weight back on and will probably soon be pregnant again. She will most likely be the first to give birth in the new tank. By the time the platies get in the 55 to cycle it she may be around half way done with carrying them. I dont know how moving her will be on her pregnancy but hopefully it will be ok. As far as her babies go I wasnt suprised most were born dead and tiny as she is only about this big ----------. She is the smallest of the 3 young adult female platies.

The 3 yyoung adult females consist of: the smaller one who gave birth yesterday. The gravid one who is almost ready to give birth who is slighty larger than the smaller one, and a female with a curved spine. The one with the curved spine is not pregnant as of now that I can tell but she probably will soon as the little male has been after her the most. I dont know what her curved spine will do with fry but we will have to wait and see.


As for the middle female as mentioned above she is also quite dominant and pregnant. I can see her becoming the matriarch of the herd when Queen dies or just passes on the torch. I excpect she will also be dropping fry this week too.

And the lone male. I dont really see him becoming dominant male as her is very small and doesnt stick up for himslef. But he does chase the females quite alot.

I hope you all are enjoying this log as much as I am lol. I will keep posted on the fry.

UPDATE

Yesterday the little baby turned 2 days old. He hung out all day by the magna float. But today I havent seen him at all. When I turn out the lights at night he usually comese to the top and sleeps so I will see if he is there. I hope he is. When he was 2 days old he was still about the size he was at birth not much bigger.



The other pregnant females have not dropped but I am pretty sure it will be later this week or this weekend.

ENJOY!