Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Resa on April 09, 2013, 04:26:49 PM
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Hi Folks!
Just thought I'd ask stupid question number 474 :) What does everybody else do with their fry? I now know that I definitely have 10 platy fry...possibly a few more. Now, considering that my girls are likely to do this to me again...and without taking in to account what the babies will produce as soon as they are old enough, I am heading for a tank filled up to its capacity with blue marble platys! Now, much as I love them, I do want to keep space for my pandas. I'm thinking that probably my only option is to see if the fish shops would be interested in taking them, I don't know their policies on this. Has anyone done this in the UK? Anyone have any other suggestions?
Stupid question no.475. Is there any kind of inbreeding problem if I keep some of the babies? You know, father/daughter, sister/brother that kind of thing?
Anyway, all thoughts appreciated,
Resa
:)
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P.S. I forgot to say, they're really sweet and look exactly like real fish now, even getting their blue marbling :D All the adults have been really good with them and don't seem to have bullied them at all. Of course, they've probably eaten a load of them while my back was turned ;D
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You could just keep buying tanks to put them in. ;D ;D
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Mmmm...real helpful ;D How about I send them to you in a jiffy bag?? ;D ;D
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You could try asking at your local shops. If they will take them the best you can hope for is a credit note. In the UK at least, shops will not pay cash for fish. Any shops that will take them will most likely expect you to keep them until they are the same size as the ones they are currently selling. The main problem you may have is that livebearers are so easy to breed that they are very cheap for the shop to buy from their wholesaler, and if they take fish from every customer who asks they'd have no room for any other fish.
In the UK, we can put fish on ebay - though strictly speaking Royal Mail will only carry fry so adult fish are supposed to sent by courier or collection only. Before going down this route, I would see if the French version of ebay has any restrictions on live fish, and what the situation is regarding postage.
We also have aquarist-classifieds, a website for selling fish related things. Is there anything similar in France? (NOTE for UK members - there is a warning from someone on another site saying they got a nasty trojan from aq-class, be careful if you visit the site)
As for inbreeding - are all your platies the same colour variety from the same shop? If they are, they are likely to be related; if not, they won't be. Inbreeding is only a problem after a few generations, and is commonly done to develop new colour strains. Father/daughter and mother/son is acceptible. Brother/sister is less so. The way round it is to get a totally unrelated male and see if a shop will take any males you may have now that are related to your females.
If at all possible, separate your male and female fry as soon as you can see the males developing a gonopodium. Virgin females will not have any fry, and neither will males if you keep one or the other and rehome the adults you have now.
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Thanks for that, Sue.
I will ask at my local shops, but I don't hold out much hope. I don't know what rules they have on french ebay, we still use the UK one. I'll have to find out.
Yes, my original 3 platys are all the same colour and came from the same tank in the shop, so I guess they are probably related. I don't have another tank so separating them isn't an option and I'd really hate to give my original chap away, but I suppose it's something I am going to have to consider. Is it ok to have just males or females and what would be better to keep? Also, how many for them to be happy and not squabble with each other?
Thanks,
Resa
:)
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Just males will probably fight. I've got my two male platies separated in different tanks as one bullied the other so much. They were best of friends when young, but after a few months then problems became apparant. :(
I don't know if keeping more than two might help as then any aggresion would be spread out..... but I did have four males at one time and things were getting more and more difficult, so I don't know if this was a contibuting factor in them turning up their little fishy toes.
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Oh right....thanks, Colin. Just girls is the way to go then....how many in a group, do you think?
It's such a shame, because I'm really attached to all my little fishies, but I do so want to get my pandas so I have to make sure there is still room in my tank. Wish I could just put the girls on the pill :D :D
Resa
:)
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I've not had experience of keeping male platies together so I would listen to someone like Colin who has. In theory at least, females should be OK together - but if they've ever spent more than 30 seconds in the same tank as a male they'll be carrying sperm and will carry on having fry once a month for approx another six months. The advantage with platies is that the females are as colourful as the males.
One thing you could try - rehome the adults you have now then the males from the fry. That would leave you with virgin females - unless your adult male has already got at them. They can be inseminated very young. In which case, rehome your males and the current fry before any more are born, then rehome the male fry from subsequent batches. That would limit the number of fry you'll have in total and leave you with just females.
Or any other permuation you can think of ;D
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My head hurts.... :)
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Wow all very complicated!
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Jesnon - at least you won't have this problem with only male endlers ;D
It's not just the number of babies that livebearers have but the fact the fry are large compared to egg laying fry when they are born (so more likely to survive) and that the females can store enough sperm for around 6 bacthes of fry.
Buying just females will quite likely result in fry for a few months as the chances are they will have been kept with males at some point even if the shop has them in separate tanks. And very young, immature females can be inseminated even if it takes a while before they become mature enough to use the sperm.
Breeders developing a new strain separate the fry as soon as the males can be identified so they can choose a particularly pretty female to breed from knowing she won't be carrying sperm from a less desirable male.
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I should have known that there would be a snag with my tank sooner or later :) Didn't expect it to be sweet little babies! Oh my goodness, this is going to take some working out ??? My son has two tanks for me in the UK but we can't get them over here just yet, they will have to wait until someone is going to or from here in the car, to give them their best chance of arriving in one piece! Anyway, I'd have to cycle them before I could use them. Meanwhile, my babies are getting bigger every day....Colin, you fibbed, you said this was a relaxing hobby ;D ;D
Resa
:)
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:-[ Sorry Resa...... though I think I said it was relaxing after the first six months so you've got a few more months to sort your platies out..... then you can relax. ;D
See.... I was right after all. ;)
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Sue yes must admit I'm very glad I declined the offer of a free female endler the LFS accidentally put in the bag with my fish! Though judging by Colin's dilemma RE: shrimp, I'm going to have similar problems when I get shrimp too!
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The advantage with shrimps is that there is usually a demand for them, unlike the comon livebearers.
I got 4 cherry shrimp a couple of weeks ago and I'm having a hard time deciding if I have males or females. I've either got all females or I have males that are a lot more colourful than all the websites say :-\
But.... one day last week, 2 of them were swimming all over the tank like my male amanos do when the female is ready to mate (she releases pheromones and the males go looking for her) so does that mean I have 2 males ???
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Hey,hey....who are you calling common? ;D ;D
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Don't worry, I'm common as well with endler-guppy hybrids ;D
Now if I had something like Heterandia that would be different ;D
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Ooh that's good, would fish shops be more likely to take baby shrimps then? How long do I have to wait until I can get them again? :-D
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You need some algea and general aquarium biofilm on your rocks and plants. With an 'Edge' style tank you probably clean all the glass sides and top, but try and leave that central column thingy un-scrubbed and looking a bit mucky. The shrimps will eat that sort of stuff. Mine spend a lot of time on plant leaves, mopani wood and the back wall of my tank, which I don't clean.
Either that or buy specialist food for them - but I never have. I drop in a torn off bit of Indian Almond Leaf every week and after the leaf has started to break down the shrimps strip it to a skeleton. It takes a few weeks to start breaking down, so there're leaves on 'rota', so to speak. The decaying leaves leach tannins and stuff in to the water which is said to be good for the fish as the streams etc. that they live in would have decaying plant matter at the bottom.
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SQ no.477....
Ok...try and follow the strange workings of my brain, I'll try to explain what I mean. I have 2 adult female platies and 1 adult male. Then, there were fry, but of such huge size difference it seemed logical to assume that 1 girl had given birth and then the other a day or two later. Final result, 10 babies with at least a centimetre difference between the largest and smallest.
Now, I know that they can pop out more every month (the adults) and can store sperm from any fun times they may have had before I got them ;) but it is nowhere near a month since the fry were born. So, I was watching all my fishies yesterday evening....you know Colin, 'relaxing' with my tank, when guess what? Yep, you got it....4 little teeny tiny fry appeared and watched me right back ;D These were obviously very new as they are so tiny and completely translucent with little black eyes.
So....here's the question......HOW? No....not that bit...I know how for that bit. ;D This sperm that they can store..can they stagger the fertilisation so that they can have babies quicker than monthly? You know, sort of successive sowings (for the gardeners among you). Could one girl have fry of such big size difference that all the previous babies were hers and this new lot are from the 2nd girl? Although, I doubt this theory myself, as both girls seemed equally fat and both 'squared off' at about the same time.
Any thoughts anyone?
I'm going to be up to my neck in platies soon :D
Happy Sunday!
Resa
:)
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Platies don't have that kind of fertilisation (though other livebearers do, they have eggs at all stages inside them and drop a couple of fry every day)
I'm at a loss to explain your babies ;D All I can think is that one of them for some reason doesn't carry the eggs for as long as the other and drops smaller fry more frequently. But I've never actually heard of that, it's just a hypothesis that fits the facts :-\
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Ok...thanks Sue. Head scratching continues...... :)
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Well...would you believe it???? Right in front of my eyes....the cheeky little platy just popped a baby out!!! :o
Then, casual as you like, swam over for some food ;D
Resa
:)
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Congrats on the new baby platys! Very mysterious...!
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How many babies????? I've just counted 10 teeny tiny new babies........and that was without really trying, and she's STILL popping 'em out :o :o :o
I'm almost scared to go to bed.....goodness knows how many there will be in the morning ;D
Resa
:)
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Congratulations...... of sorts. :)
Any ideas what you're going to do with them yet?
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Yep...told you, they're on their way to you in a jiffy bag ;D
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Haha looks like you'll be needing a new tank soon!
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Yep...told you, they're on their way to you in a jiffy bag ;D
;D I'll swap you for some shrimps!
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Done!
;D
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Latest suggestion for my babies....(my son's) adding a form of whitebait to our menu :o