# How do you care for Platy fry?



## Marindalyn

Yay so I had a 24 kg platy had 2 live babies and 3 dead that I know of. We decided to take her out of the breeding tank because she kept eating the babies. Only saw her eating the dead ones, but better safe then sorry. We rigied two breeding nets together on top of each other with little slits inbetween so the fry and swim down there and be safe. So maybe she will have a few more. She's still a fatty. But now that I have fry in there own little tank, what do I do? There is a lot of junk from the mom still in there and I should probably do a water change? How do I care for them now? Like how often do I feed them and whats a good temp for them? How long should I leave the light on for them? SO new to this! :fun:


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## darkfalz

Having only 2 might actually be a problem. They'll probably start fighting soon. And there's the danger of overfeeding because you need to feed such small amounts. I had 22, lost 3 to swim bladder and another 2 found dead last week, so I have 17 left. They are feasting twice a day on microworms and also have Sera micron and mirkopan to eat for the vitamins and fibre they need. You can try grinding up some flake food as fine as you can and feed the tiniest amount to see if they will take it.

The mother will probably have more. Mine is about to drop again, could be any day now. I may have to holocaust the lot of them, as I don't have the space and I'd be raising them just to sell or give away, as I already have too many to keep.


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## Marindalyn

Why would they fight? I also have 2 more platy ready to pop. So if she does not have more, it will be only a matter of days until there are more. I am feeding them Rotifers right now. That it what the pet store said was best in small amounts.


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## darkfalz

Mine have fights especially at feeding times. Why, I don't know, some are just aggressive.


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## darkfalz

I've never seen rotifers before. How big are they? Easy to hatch/culture? My fry are growing fast now I've got the microworms, feeding two huge meals a day as well as powdered food in between.


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## Marindalyn

the fry? they died... The food. It's big frozen cubes you break in small peices and put in the water and it disolves.


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## leafgirl115

thats not good. Its probaly poisining the water in the tank.

How did the fry die?


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## humdedum

I had just 2 platy fry in January, the bigger one shot up and started to bully the other one in the confines of a breeder trap, so they are now happily co-existing ina tengal tank with 17 zebra danio fry!


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## smileexpert

*-_-*

My sunset wag platy just had 5 fry (might have had more and eaten them before I noticed). one died for some reason and temporarily, i have no place to keep them so they kinda just live in a small jam jar with lots of food at the bottom. The temperature maintanence is kinda hard though...any suggestions for me so they dont die?:fish::fish::fish::fish: X-l


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## snyderguy

Best thing to do would be to get them out of the jam jar and back into the main tank. Buy a breeder's net or something like that so they don't get eaten.


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## Lissa_678

When my guys had babies, I fed them this liquid fry food that I bought at the pet store. I used it for a few weeks, until they started to get some colour. Then I slowly switched them over to ground flake food, supplemented with microworms and a bit of brine shrimp, which is what I feed my adults too (just not ground up). Most of mine grew up just fine and are still alive.

As for housing, after the mother finished birthing her little ones in a breeder box (didn't seem stressed) I put a small 2 gallon tank right inside my 30 gal main tank because I didn't have a heater small enough for this tank so the babies were able to stay warm. I filled the smaller one with water from the bigger one so that the water line in the big tank was just below the water line of the smaller one, which stopped the small tank from floating. Then I put this tiny filter (no intake, it just blows bubbles through the media cartridge..perfect for not sucking up babies) so that the water stayed clean. It worked really well. I kept them in that until I thought they would be able to avoid being sucked up a filter. Then I moved them to my ten gal tank. 

I've since moved the biggest ones to the main tank but I still have a few in the 10 gal because my 30 gal tank has a filter intake large enough to suck them up. 

Worked pretty good for me, only lost 1 or 2 that I can tell.


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