# Platy Fry - Devastated



## Jaynee (Oct 11, 2006)

Okay, so I'm doing my PWC change today for the next ich treatment. As I'm syphoning around the rocks I wasn't really paying TOO much attention other than trying to avoid the fish. Well, I noticed something in the vacuum tube that was actively trying NOT to get syphoned out. It was orange and a little bigger than a grain of cooked rice. Just as it gave up and disappeared into the tube I realized it was a platy fry! And not only that, but I realized that it's probably the 4-5th fry I've syphoned out in the past few days. I had been seeing them but figured it was just really big pieces of dirt that was heavy enough to take a while to get syphoned through the tube.

Obviously I immediately stopped syphoning and began to look in my bucket for the fry, but I couldn't find it among all the debris that I had already vacuumed up. I even brought down my aquarium lamp in the hopes it would provide heavy enough light that I could find it. Alas, I never did (I even had my kids looking with me).

I'm DEVASTATED that I not only did it once, but most likely did it 4-5 times over the past few days. 

Just wanted to post my sad news. I'm going to be more diligent about watching that tank and hope that I don't do this again. Not that I have room for any more fish (I only have 15 gallons and am maxed out on the fish I can have in there), but I think my kids would enjoy seeing little baby fish in the tank for a few days until I decide what to do with them.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

It happens to all of us at some point.
My friend managed to vacuum up a full grown male guppy. It got stuck in the little opening where the cylinder narrows down into the tubing.
She could not get the poor thing out. usually the suction is not high enough to suck up an adult guppy.
here is an idea.
If you think you have sucked up a fry just wait until all the debris settles in the bucket and then look. Failing that filter the water thru a net. I know you will get a lot of stuff in the bottom but you will also catch the fry.
Save some of the strained water to dump the contents of the net into. use a plastic jam jar, You can then let the debris settle again and perhaps suck the fry into a turkey baster from the dollar store. You may have to change out the water in the jam jar several times before you get it clean enough but at least you will have your fry. Better still suck out the debris with the turket baster bit by bit being carefull to avoid the fry.
If you burn a hole into the top of the plastic bottle/jar you can thread a wire through it and suspend in the main tank so the fry stay warm.
I find the turkey baster is invaluable. If you have a small fish in quarantine in the plastic jar you can use it to do water changes .


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## Jaynee (Oct 11, 2006)

I do worry about vacuuming up one of my corys - he's smaller than the other two and darts around the tank. And whenever I vacuum the rocks he comes sniffing around to see what I'm doing. Many a time he has come right up to the tube to see what's happening. 

On a side note, I think one of my sunburst platies is preggers. She has gotten big over the past week or so and is easily double the girth of the other females. So I'll be keeping an eye on her and may go out and get one of those breeding dealies (yeah, I don't know the terms - but I know you all know what I'm talking about *lol*). I certainly can't keep the fry, but I'd love for my kids to be able to see them until I give them away.

Of course, I'm still battling ick in the tank, too, so I doubt I'll even be ABLE to give them away. Despite daily 15-20% PWCs and ick meds, Spot has one small spot on her tail, and one of my other platies has two spots on her tail. Grrr... It's not as bad as it was when I discovered it (Spot had many more spots when I saw it for the first time).


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

I had to stop caring about all the fry I was vac'ing up in my zebra danio tank. At first I did save them, but not after the first few tries. When I did save them I just sucked them up out of the water change bucket with a turkey baster. The best way to do this is to give it plenty of time to settle, then start your search. The fry will move and will be noticeable. This can take extreme patience and good eyes  It helps that I use my trash can (kitchen rubbermaid tall puppy) and it is white. Makes it easy to find moving things. And before folks freak out no I do not use that to put the water back into my tank. I have a bucket for that.


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## Jaynee (Oct 11, 2006)

I'm happy to report that during today's pre-ich treatment PWC I found another fry! This time I was able to catch him in the net and put him in a tupperware container filled with the pre-existing tankwater. He's TINY (size of a piece of rice). I then set up the breeding net that I bought this morning (which I bought for the preggers platy), and put him in the tank. He has big black eyes, an orange body and a black tail - just like his red wag daddy. I tried to take a picture, but my camera's macro function sucks. 

I hope that the preggers platy doesn't start dropping her load soon (she's even bigger this morning) because I'm not ready for her to go into that net yet! I tried to get one of those "safe fry" breeding things, but my LFS didn't have any in stock - so I went with the net. Any suggestions on how I can modify the net to allow the fry to be separated safely from the mom as she gives birth?


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

give momma a good feed when she starts to deliver and right after as they get very hungry. Also if you have floating plants in your tank throw them into the net or pull some 'leaves' off your silk or plastic plants the fry can hide in there. Delivery takes variable times depending on the fish. One of my girls drops her all at one go but the other one drags it out over 2 or 3 days. I just usually catch the fry from the tank as it is all livebearers and I find the female fish don't bother too much with the fry. 
Now the egg layers I have will actively hunt any fry in a community tank.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Jn:

This one is a real kludge but it is the best which I have come up with.

Siphon a tea pitcher almost full of WC water.

Then siphon the remainder of WC water through a fine fish net.

Dump the fish net into the tea pitcher: the fry will come to the top to the light but the deleterious material will settle to the bottom.

Complete the WC ie. add the new water to the tank.

Pour most of the tea pitcher very quickly back through the fine fish net and put the fry on the fish net back into the tank.

As I said this is a real kludge and hopefully someone else has a much better idea.

TR


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

I once siphoned up an oto...poor guy.


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## Jaynee (Oct 11, 2006)

Well, it took about 50 shots before I got it, but I finally got a good picture of the baby fry! This thing literally is the side of a piece of rice BEFORE it gets cooked. So it was nearly impossible to take a picture of it! But I got lucky yesterday when he moved up to the top and "laid" on a leaf of the fake plant I put in the breeder net.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

looks good- very cute.
feed at least 3 times a day- crumble up some flake adult food real fine. They usually pick off the bottom of the breeder tank until they get a bit older. Then they will start to go to the surface to eat.
Platies are slow growers in comparison to guppies so don't be surprised that they are not a decent size til about 3 months old.


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## Jaynee (Oct 11, 2006)

Well, it's been about a week since my last post - thought I'd give an update on the fry. He's growing! He's also becoming more opaque. He's about 1/3 of an inch long now and MUCH easier to find in the breeder net. I think in another month he'll be big enough to go in the main tank with the rest of the fish - I'm not worried about the platys eating him, but I DO worry about Mami Gourami - she STALKS that fry when it swims by the edge of the net!

Anyway, it has been fun to watch him get slightly bigger and more visible. Instead of hiding all the time, it regularly swims around his little area now. A nice sight to see!


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## Jaynee (Oct 11, 2006)

Another update - my fry is now a fish - complete with visible fins now. Not only that, but while cleaning the tank today I found one of the fry that was born sometime in the past couple days by the pregnant platy. I was able to catch it and put it in the breeder net with the other baby fish. It's amazing to see the difference because the first baby fry is now a MONSTER compared to the new fry!!

I'm hoping that I can release the first fry into the general population in the next week or two. He's about 1/2 an inch long so I don't think Mami Gourami could eat him, but I want to let him get a little bit bigger just to make sure.

I'm sure there are other fry in the tank that I haven't found yet - will look again when I clean the rocks again during the next PWC.


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