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Hi,

I just added my first fish to my aquarium on Friday (3 mickey mouse platies) and on Saturday, ended up with at least 10 new frys. I haven't isolated them, it wasn't my intent to breed them. Is it wrong to let them stay in the tank with the other platies and wait to see if they survive, or what? I also planned on adding new fish on Friday (most likely dwarf gourami's). I have seen at least 7 frys as of this morning, so they seem to be hiding well. What should I do?

well u can add plants into the tank to provide the fry cover untill they are bigger. another thing u can do is buy a small 5 gallon tank with plants and let the fry go in there. fry should be o.k with thier parents but not with gouramies.

Since you weren't planning to breed - and if you don't intend to begin now... You might as well leave things "as is" ---- Would like to make one suggestion, if you have both male and female livebearers I would definitely go with either all male or all female or this will be a constant problem for you.... And remember! Should you decide to go with all females, there WILL be upcoming births for awhile even if you remove the males, as females can hold sperm......

To thine own self be true...

Welcome to FP!

My guppies are fry machines, and I just let the fry develop. Many get eaten, but a few survive. Kinda like survival of the fittest. I also feed the fry to my cichids/gourami/danios. The dwarf gourami you plan on getting will keep your fry in control.

It's a personal choice what you do with the fry.

My 29g is essentially a platy tank. In all the time I've had them, only 2 have survived to grow full size. I personally think floating plants are essential if you want fry to survive; I've had zero make it after I removed most of mine.

IME platies will eat their own fry. My blue gourami was also very helpful, my German rams too

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I had a quick question for you: is your tank cycled? If you have just set up your tank then you should perhaps wait a few weeks to add more fish and let your platies assist with completing your cycle. If you overload a new tank with too many fish at first you might end up with a tank full doing the back stroke. Anyhow, if your tank is not cycled most likely the ammonia will take care of most of your fry.

Also, I have had platies since Jan and probably 2-3 fry have survived each batch in my heavily planted tank. So, as already mentioned, if you want to keep a few, put in some plants, if you don't then they will be taken care of.

-Beth

Thanks everyone. Yes, My tank has cycled. Had it up and running for a week before adding any fish, and have been monitoring everything since I added them last week. I have a lot of artificial plants and other good hiding places for the fry. I counted at least 10 again last nite. Cute little buggers. From what I can tell, I have one male and 2 female platies. So I guess I will have this issue alot. Never thought about it when I bought the fish. Guess I should watch that with the next batch of fish I buy.

What do you think about using a gravel vacuum for a water exchange? Will I cyphon up the frys in it? (In other words, should I make my husband do it rather than me? hehe)

Question 1: when you say you had it up and running for a week... did you add any product like Cycle to start it off or did you add ammonia for a fishless cycle? Because if you added ammonia it takes about 3 weeks to grow the proper amt of bacteria. In other words, it is probably not cycled, but I don't know for sure until you answer the 2nd question.
Question 2: Do you have test kits? When you say monitoring the tank, can you post your numbers for ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte?
Re. gravel vac: I always used the gravel vac and dumped into a bucket... checking constantly to make sure no fry got sucked up, never lost one that way. I also moved the gravel around a bit with the vac before I got started to scare them out of the way. But if you use a bucket it helps if it's a light color, you can see better.
Anyhow, you should probably wait until your platies have been doing well for about 3-4 weeks before added a few more fish.

-Hope that helps, sorry it was so long.
Beth

Yeah, I'm still learning. My tank has not cycled, but it has ran for almost 2 weeks, one of which with fish. So it is not completely cycled. (I was confused because the directions with the tank told me it had to cycle for 24-48 hrs before I could add fish, I waited a week though).

I have test kits. pH has been 7.6 consistently, ammonia was 0, then moved to .25 when I added fish, now its at .50 ppm. Nitrite and Nitrate have both been at zero.

Now that I have read some of the things on the site, I realize my tank has not completely cycled yet, and that I should wait to add more fish until then. The instructions I got with the tank starter kit (From PetSmart) says I can add 1/3 of the fish each week. They didn't really mention cycling other than for the first 24-48 hours. Glad I found you guys to help me out:

Alright, frys are all still with us (from what I can tell). at least 15. 34 days old. Some are getting quite big. And their 'ears' are coming in (Mickey Mouse ears on the tails that is).

My tank is STILL cycling. So I haven't added any gourami's to help out yet. (Ammonia is back to 0, nitrItes are at 3, nitrates 75). Will the fry be too big for a dwarf gourami to snack on?

And I think they are spawning again, or one may be pregnant again. (the male will not leave one of the females alone, and she is hiding anywhere she can. Kinda worried about her though)

What do you guys think?