r/Platyfish

I love them!

Hello! are they pregnant? I am worried they are bloated :( I only got them 2 weeks ago!

My first fry and I was excited thats why I saved as much as I could but I will only keep 3-4 when they become adults since I already have 5 adults. What to do with the rest?

The 3 platies have been in this formerly invertebrate tank since Tuesday last week. I’m still vibing out how they look after feeding but I feel like there’s a weird goldilocks game going in on.

The concerns are:
Does the Ken have intestinal parasites?
Does Bruce have a swim bladder problem developing?

Ken, big red tuxedo, never really eats a lot and mostly guards the food. He always looks fairly sleek after feedings, never pleasantly plump or bloated. At feedings, he is spirited, and he was the first to correlate me with food.

The second biggest, an unnamed marigold, eats so well and is not just fast but perceptive. Every meal, he eats the most and looks pleasantly full- except the one time he got 5/6 bloodworms I was trying to feed to everyone. He was rotund (and thrilled) but he slimmed right down by the next morning. We should call this guy Goldilocks cus he’s doing just right.

The smallest platy, a black/gold juvenile we call Bruce, started looking plumper after every meal. He managed to fit in the spot I hid a calcium tablet for the inverts and the three of them demolished it. I fed part of an algae wafer after soaking and dried algae the following two days. After feeding a small amount of Bug Bites today he had a long, thick chalky stool as well as some brown normal stools after. The snails ate his poop right away, it gone.

Bruce’s growing plumpness, however, remains problematic. Last night, I saw him trying to escape the back corner between a plant, the bubbler, and the glass. He kinda stuck in the bubbler and tossed around for a moment so I intervened by sweeping the water away from the bubbler. He was swept free and seemed dazed but fully righted himself. Then I cleared the corner a bit. Lil guy is doing me a big concern.

Honestly, until I get the vibe of things, I’m just not gonna be chill. Any info is greatly welcomed and appreciated!

TLDR: had 3 platies for 1 week.
Biggest platy isn’t eating well and stays slim but not looking thin, shows interest in food and seems to eat- parasites?
Smallest platy eats great but always stays bloated. Everyone into a calcium tablet 2 days ago, fed plant matter for 2 days and smallest platy passed chalky stools followed by brown, still bloated- swim bladder?

Mother is a blue neon wag, and father is some sort of Xiphophorus hybrid. I don't know what happened here, but I'm all for it! The fry are about two weeks old and some of them are now showing black markings, either spots or stripes. These are going to be very interesting to watch grow up. Sadly, the one with blue eyes is kind of runty and might not make it :-(

(I don't know why the pictures look like everyone's gills are inflamed, but IRL, they're normal pink.)

I have three female platys. They’ve had their share of babies since I’ve had them, and I’ve fished them out and taken them back to the LFS. I think they’re finally done (here’s to hoping anyway). This little one is the last baby I haven’t been able to catch. I’d love to watch her grow and see how she matures, but I wonder if I’m playing with fire as I fear if she’s a male I won’t know until after my females are impregnated again. Thoughts?

I removed the blue platy that was harassing his tank-mates non-stop.

I wasn’t even planning on fish for this 10 gallon invertebrate tank and I’ve never kept fish before. I went to the LFS for mosquito fish to put in our patio pond and they caught me a mix of 5 different colored fish from the tank labeled Gambusia mosquito fish. The males were black/gold and sunset orange, the females were soft peach to gray.

I thought it was awesome that mosquito fish came in cool color morphs but I hadn’t really looked into much beyond their basic care and temperature tolerance. I wasn’t going to be able to see them in the pond beneath the floaters- why would I search for cool color morphs? And with how many hobbyists have started their own breeding experiments, it made sense to me that someone somewhere had bred mosquito fish for specific traits.

All of that to say, once I realized they were platy fish- a few hours after dripping them into the pond and trying to read about mosquito fish varieties online- I made an impulsive decision. Since they couldn’t stay outdoors year round here, I would take them all back except the cutest and spunkiest one. The resources I read advised keeping a male platy solo would be better than keeping just 2-3 but 4 platies would be ideal, socially. The 10 gallon felt big for the 1 young platy but 4 seemed like too many. A male and females was out of the question in a 10 gallon.

The next day, I caught the little black/gold male and dripped him into my 10 gallon. He began hunting and eating tiny fauna through the tank and exploring, like he had in the pond with the others. So, I packed up his buddies to go back to the LFS.

When I returned (with actual mosquito fish), the little dude was distraught. I immediately tested the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate which were all 0. I recalled that he was zipping along the glass by the side of the tank where he could see the other platies packed to return to the LFS. It gave me pause but I thought perhaps these guys acclimate to solo living in time.

After hours of seeing him glass surf in distress, I was getting stressed. I went to the Petco 15 minutes before they closed and got 3 more platies. Two were much larger but the blue platy was just about his size. Upon joining the tank, all 4 hid when I would observe so I left them alone for an hour.

When I came back, the OG black/gold guy was in hiding, resting on the heater. That made me uncomfortable so I raised it up and he hid down below it. The blue platy was tailing the larger marigold like they were best friends which seemed cute at first. Then it became constant nipping and chasing the smallest guy any time he tried to come out and graze. The red tuxedo didn’t seem to get grief from anyone and has been so calm the whole time.

I just don’t think there are enough plants and sight line breaks for a 10 gallon to work with a bully. I’m also concerned about filtration with so many fish added at once. I have a 15 gallon cube to set up that I guess I’ll be building around their needs so I can get the blue platy back inside before temps drop to 60F. In the mean time, the two female mosquito fish should be better at managing his pestering.

Sorry to blather, it’s just been a lot to process since Monday and Tuesday was my birthday 😮‍💨 🥳

They didn’t ask me if I wanted to farm them but the blood worms already started showing up in the tanks since some midge flies got inside and frikked all over the house. The platies hunted down most of the ones they could find in their tank, which is nice!

But I found some fat, live bloodworms in the bowl of rocks I’m growing algae on. So I thought, why not? They already get a wild source of bloodworms right in their substrate, whether I like it or not. And I do love to feed the fish! They’re learning about tongs so not everyone was brave enough this round. The marigold sure was fast though. No matter how hard I tried to stop that him, dude ate 5. The red tuxedo got 1, and the little black and gold guy got a big fat none 😂

I am trying some strategies to make sure the smallest platy eats and he’s a plump boy after feeding but by far the smallest and least likely to get the good stuff.

Not sure

Don't mind the snails, I just want to show off my outside pond with "more than I thought" fry! This is a tank of live bearers (guppies(4+), Mollys(3), platys(6+)] and Dr. Fish (4)+ rosay red minnows (3) 🥺 I have a lot of fry and they all seem to be doing really well, but I'm looking to give away some because I don't think the pond can handle all of the babies!