Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Waggler66 on March 03, 2016, 02:39:28 PM
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Hi
I have recently started up an aquarium, the fish have been in for 6 weeks and the tank had no fish for 4 week whilst cycle was building.
I have platties and danios (4 of each).
I have discovered within the last couple of days, baby fish. I think they are the platties.
My question is are they safe or do i need to seperate them. They seem to be feeding freely below the others.
Also I intend to now put in some bottom feeders.
Which would you recommend now that I have baby fish in the tank.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Regards
LES :fishy1:
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Hi Les :wave:
The babies are indeed most likely to be platies. Although danios also breed readily, because they are egg layers the fry are very small when they hatch. Livebearer fry are always much bigger.
If you have plenty of hiding places in the tank, the fry will be fine. By hiding places I mean plants, real or fake, or decor that they can hide in. If you feed flake, you could try crushing it a bit to make smaller sized pieces which the fry will be able to eat more easily.
The main problem with livebearers is that if you try to save all the fry, there will soon be no swimming room left because of the number of platies. Harsh as it may sound, leaving them in the tank is the best way to deal with fry. Some will always make it through to adulthood, then the females will start having babies of their own.
You don't mention the size of the tank - length and width being the most important for bottom dwellers - so it is hard to suggest what would be suitable. For a tank with a smallish footprint, one of the three dwarf corydoras would be suitable; a bigger tank could accommodate larger cories or a bristlenose plec. Also, do you know if you have hard or soft water - cories prefer soft.
But before getting bottom dwellers, it would be better to get at least 2 more danios.
Did you do a fishless cycle using ammonia? If not, what are your ammonis and nitrite readings? They need to be zero before yuo get another fish of any kind......
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Hi Sue thanks for the most informative reply.
My tank is 10 gallons.
I did a fishless cycle before any of the fish went in and the reading according to the stockist was fine.
So you would recommend the dwarf corydoras. I will get another couple of danios as suggested.
Thanks
LES
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Unfortunately 4 platies and 6 danios puts you at 100% stocked for a tank of around 40 litres (10 galls). And don't forget the baby platies will grow up and increase the bioload.
In this case, rather than cories, how do you feel about shrimps? I know some people can't stand them. But they would add very little to your bioload. With the fish you have, a larger species of shrimp such as ghost or amano shrimps would be better than the smaller cherry shrimps which would most likely end up as expensive fish food. Avoid the larger shrimps like bamboo shrimps as they are hard to feed and commonly starve to death.
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Thank you Sue
Looks like i will have to have a rethink.
Or get a bigger tank, this one was a christmas present and wouldnt have been my choice.
LES
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I have 3 tanks ;D
A nice big tank for the platies, danios and anything else you would like, then the 10 gall would make a nice tank for a betta, or a big shoal of one of the so-called nano fish (eg one of the Boraras species for soft water, or celestial pearl danios aka galaxy rasboras for hard water).
This is how multiple tank syndrome starts.....
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Hi Les :wave:
I have also started recently (October) with platies and danios, and didn't quite realise how readily platies reproduced. After a couple of babies I put the male in a separate tank to avoid any further offspring.
I have fallen foul of multiple tank syndrome, and am really enjoying it. If you have the space then I highly recommend it.
Have fun with your tank(s).
:)
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This is how multiple tank syndrome starts.....
Tell me about it! ::)