Preggers?

Hey guys, sorry if everyone asks this but I couldn't find an obvious answers using the search.
I have several platies, of a few different varieties and there are a couple in the tank that I believe to be pregnant.  I am pretty new to fish, so honestly I can't even tell males from females, but this little platy has been getting bigger over time and the platy of the same type seems to stay close to her at all times.  Is she pregnant?  If so, how long is it before they usually give birth?  This is the best picture I could get, the orange one is the one in question, the red one to the left is her sidekick.

Thanks for the help!



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She looks quite pregnant  Congrats! I think the red one is a male. I cant say for sure how long until she gives birth, maybe 1-2 weeks. An easy way to tell male from female is their anal fin.
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That's good news! There is another platy in there I believe to be a blue tuxedo that looks even more pregnant than this one. The only thing I could gather from reading online is that their stomachs "square up" right before the birth...the blue one I have is definitely big and square.

Is there anything I can do to help guarantee there are some survivors after the birth? As you can see in the picture she camps out near the breeding grass I have. Aside from the grass, is there anything that may help keep the fry safe?

You could put some more hiding places in your tank if you don't have another place to put them. There is also the breeder box option, which you can get at petco. I have another tank set up for babies; I get them out of the main tank with a turkey baster  If I leave them in my tank and let nature take its course I usually have a few survivors, but that depends on the amount of plants and size of the tank. Warning! your fish will eat babies.

lymitliss wrote:That's good news!  There is another platy in there I believe to be a blue tuxedo that looks even more pregnant than this one.  The only thing I could gather from reading online is that their stomachs "square up" right before the birth...the blue one I have is definitely big and square.

Is there anything I can do to help guarantee there are some survivors after the birth?  As you can see in the picture she camps out near the breeding grass I have.  Aside from the grass, is there anything that may help keep the fry safe?

anything the fry can travel through easily but snags up the parents a bit... i find val works great for this when you get a bunch of it going in a tank. plus val is just about the easiest plant to grow. guppy grass is another good one. lots of people say java moss is good for fry, but i don't see my guppy fry really swim through my java moss much because it gets so thick, and i don't really envision that its limp, spongy consistency would stop a hungry platy if it wanted to suck up a baby. it really just depends on what sort of plants you like... any type of plant should give the fry cover and something to put between them and the adults if they are getting chased

i have lots of fake plants that i got with some hand-me-down tanks that you can definitely have if you want them. they might be good until you can get some more real plants going for cover. alternately, you can have some live plants i am about to trim tomorrow. i can meet anywhere between everett and bellevue

A pregnant female platy will have a larger belly but you'll also see a dark spot called the Gravid Spot at the back of her belly near the anal fin. When they're really pregnant, depending on how much pigmentation the female has, you can see the eyes of the fry in there.

My platy females are particularly bad at eating their fry... but as everyone else has said - the more cover the better. Java moss seems to work pretty well in one of my tanks.

I would avoid the breeder box approach, personally - it can be very stressful for the female.

pbmax wrote:I would avoid the breeder box approach, personally - it can be very stressful for the female.

I agree with this, I prefer to leave them in the main tank. It's an option, but there are many better options.

LuminousAphid wrote:

lymitliss wrote:That's good news!  There is another platy in there I believe to be a blue tuxedo that looks even more pregnant than this one.  The only thing I could gather from reading online is that their stomachs "square up" right before the birth...the blue one I have is definitely big and square.

Is there anything I can do to help guarantee there are some survivors after the birth?  As you can see in the picture she camps out near the breeding grass I have.  Aside from the grass, is there anything that may help keep the fry safe?

anything the fry can travel through easily but snags up the parents a bit... i find val works great for this when you get a bunch of it going in a tank. plus val is just about the easiest plant to grow. guppy grass is another good one. lots of people say java moss is good for fry, but i don't see my guppy fry really swim through my java moss much because it gets so thick, and i don't really envision that its limp, spongy consistency would stop a hungry platy if it wanted to suck up a baby. it really just depends on what sort of plants you like... any type of plant should give the fry cover and something to put between them and the adults if they are getting chased

i have lots of fake plants that i got with some hand-me-down tanks that you can definitely have if you want them. they might be good until you can get some more real plants going for cover. alternately, you can have some live plants i am about to trim tomorrow. i can meet anywhere between everett and bellevue

pbmax wrote:A pregnant female platy will have a larger belly but you'll also see a dark spot called the Gravid Spot at the back of her belly near the anal fin.  When they're really pregnant, depending on how much pigmentation the female has, you can see the eyes of the fry in there.

My platy females are particularly bad at eating their fry... but as everyone else has said - the more cover the better.  Java moss seems to work pretty well in one of my tanks.

I would avoid the breeder box approach, personally - it can be very stressful for the female.

Sorry, I didn't read these replies soon enough or I might have been able to meet for those plants! I appreciate it! I have a 55gal Tetra tank with basic white LEDs in it. Can I grow live plants in it? All I have right now are fake plants because I was warned that live ones may be hard to grow, and that they need correct lighting depending on depth of the tank and so on.

The platy pictured above definitely has the dark spot you are referring to, so hopefully I'll see some fry soon!

Another good plant i use if you can keep in your tank (too much water flow blows it around everywhere) is subwassertang. I have some guppy fry and they LOVE it. its perfect for the little guys to hide in!

Plants that like low light can be grown anywhere really, Java fern is a great beginner plant.

Well I was able to get some live guppy grass for my tank, as well as some water lettuce (just to liven the tank up a bit). However, the platy I was expecting to have fry any day is suddenly much smaller, and does not appear pregnant anymore...I'm wondering if she had them while I was at work and there weren't any survivors by the time I got home. If that's the case, it's certainly disappointing. But I'm sure she'll have more, and a few others still appear to be close to having some as well. Hopefully the fry will hide out in the guppy grass better this time around!

Who knows, maybe you will see some when they get a bit larger, but the more plants the better!

lymitliss wrote:But I'm sure she'll have more, and a few others still appear to be close to having some as well.  Hopefully the fry will hide out in the guppy grass better this time around!

Indeed; she will almost certainly have more.    Guppy Grass, Java Moss, and Susswassertang are all great for hiding fry.