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I have a dedicated fry tank, a mix of guppies and platies. although there were less platies to start with the ones(about four) don't come near the top to eat and generally hide alot. the guppies are alot more confident and can be seen swimming all the time.

is this normal
is it a problem
can i do anything to help the platies to survive?

thanks

GFG

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Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
Harvey S. Firestone

When they're quite young I've found they don't know to come to the surface for food. To make sure they're all eating I'd sink some food for the others. If your using crushed flake release it with your hand in the water. For something like First Bites I mix it in a bowl with tank water then add it to the tank with a baster.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I'd use liquifry. A few drops will certainly sink to the bottom and they should venture for the food. It can make the surface of the water 'milky' though, so water changes are required.

All of my guppy fry stay in the same tank with the parents and they scavange for whatever they can until they are brave enough to feed with the adults. So I think if you have anything "edible" in the tank the platie fry will make do with what they have until they are older and more confident enough to come to the surface.

An unused coffee grinder made a great fry food grinder...

Took cichlid flakes, freezedried bloodworms, guppy flakes, shrimp pellets and ground it up very fine... Good stuff..

Of course flakes ground into powder between your fingers works well too. The fish that stay on the bottom will get the flakes that sink from the top.. If nothing is sinking, put a little more food in, or spread it around more, some will hit bottom.

The Amazon Nut...

well i have made sure food sinks to the bottom, and i can see three platy fry swimming, and I have seen them eat.

i was wondering if they don't survive because they get their colour so much quicker - they are bright orange sunset platies, in the adult tank they were immediately obvious and so eaten quicker then the grey guppies,

would the guppies eat the platies? - the guppies have grown more quickly then the platies?

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Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
Harvey S. Firestone

Baby guppys/platies are a good treat for adult guppys/platies. Yes, they will eat them.
I'm assuming since platy behavior is so similar to guppys, that this follows for them also.

You can either raise the fry in a separate tank or keep them in the breeder until they're big enough to not get swallowed. I'm havin bad luck with my guppy fry lately when I keep them in the breeder. I think it's due to lack of water movement within. Even though the sides are slotted, hardly any fresh water passes through and the nitrate level rises in the container. I might try the goldfish bowl next time or let them go in the tank but put nylon over the filter intake.

The Amazon Nut...

You should get a breeding trap for the fry and feed the food to them in the trap. They will eat much faster and develop quicker.

I disagree funkyfish, A breeding trap is far too small for raising fry in. Especially with large ammounts, I think a small tank would be fine.

As for feeding them, I would feed BBS, and they will nibble at them when they see them. Also, I use one of those pill crushers made of marble to crush some flakes. I crush quite a few and put them into those little plastic gladware containers.