# deformed platy fry



## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Several of my new fry (3 weeks old) have deformed tails. They come to a point. I have had others from the same female with the problem. Fry do okay when they are real small but as they get older they gradually begin to fail. They get thin. 
Perhaps from the weight of their bodies and not being able to swim as well to the food. 
I have also had a couple of fry born with only one eye.
They make it til about 3 months and then die. I am not sure if they are eaten by other fish or if they have internal deformities also. I suspect they have other issues that cannot be seen.
If it was predation by tank mates you would think they would have been eaten before now.
Anyone else have issues with deformed fry?
This is from a breeding with a red wag female and a goldust male. i think the male is the problem as the female has come from a long line of red wags that have never had deformities before.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I used to get guppy fry with bent backs. Deformities are common in inbred lines of livebearers, but I'm told they can also result from poor nutrition and exposure to chemicals. The common solution is to feed the deformed fry to a larger fish (like a pike cichlid). Some people on these forums take a deformed fish home and care for it for all its life (usually in isolation). Try to keep 2 separate lines and crossbreed them back after a couple of generations. (the rate of birth defects in the children of cousins is almost down to the normal level). By all means, try a different male. Birth defects down the line are one of the reasons I try to avoid hybrids. Most domestic swords and platies are the descendants of hybrids. Get some F1 or F2 or wild caught fish (montezuma swords are gorgeous) and you will see very few birth defects.


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## PlatyLady (Oct 27, 2006)

I wouldn't count the female out as a source of the problem yet. I have never had much success breeding wags. The first female that I bred was a Sunset Fire Tuxedo Wag (I belive). She had five fry on her first drop. One was stillborn, one had a severely crooked spine, and another just kind of wasted away. I ended up with two fry. One is healthy and has been sold, the other died just the other day (it came down with a mysterious case of swimbladder and died within a few hours of symptoms cropping up). The mother also died shortly after their birth; she developed a very crooked back and got really dangerously thin, and just sort of wasted away.


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## Ltrepeter2000 (Dec 6, 2006)

One of the things with Platys and a few other livebearers is a need for Calcium in their diet to the point that when I had them I used to liquid dose my flake food with calcium to help with that. I have to agree about the montezuma swords if you can get some wild caught. They are quite impressive.

Thanks
Rob


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

I have been breeding the red wags brother to sister and father to sister for about 4 years now and Now that I bought this new male i have had problems.
go figure.
i guess i will let my bettas have the deformed ones.
We have real hard water so i don't think calcium would be a problem.


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## darkfalz (May 7, 2006)

I lost three fry in the first few days but from then I raised all my fry perfectly, but it was a LOT of work. Feedings three times a day and siphoning the water from the bottom twice a day. That was a lot of work! I didn't have a job at the time. Now they are all grown up, still only about half full size but totally coloured and developed.


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