My fish is pregnant... What on earth do you do with baby fish?

Okay, so posting this in relationships was a bit of a joke. Mods, feel free to move it. I've had my fun...

But, anyway. I got a fishtank for Christmas and the fish police in Pets at Home sold me 2 southern platyfish because apparently it isn't 'big enough' for goldfish (I remember the days where I used to keep 4 goldfish in a tan like 1/4 of the size, but never mind...) . Anyway. I started to think one of them was getting a little fat... Until I stopped being blond and realised that fish don't get fat. So yeah. I have a boy and a girl. And Casanova has managed to get Beryl pregnant. I've checked the signs, they're all there. You can see their little eyes forming and everything!

Now, I'm actually quite a nice person, and I don't want any harm to come to the babas when they pop out, so... What do you do to keep them safe? I've heard about net breeders (so Beryl doesn't get too stressed), but then do I move them to another tank? And when they grow up and I can separate genders is it okay to put Casanova with the boys and Beryl with the girls or will they get too stressed?

I genuinely am like a worried grandparent now! And she's massive so she'll probably be ready to drop any time now so I don't want to leave the house (even though I have to)... Stupid fish police fail to inform you that it's almost impossible not to get livebearers to breed! Gah.

Anyway, any advice from those who have or do keep fish would be greatly appreciated. I have gerbils, ferrets, dogs, horses, have had rats and hamsters in the past, and none of them have caused this much stress LOL! I thought fish were supposed to be easy?

Also, out of interest... What's the best way of keeping down thread algae. I've got some stuff to treat the water with but it's not doing a particularly great job and I'm concerned about moving her out to give it a proper clean now.

Thank you in advance!! Ay.

My first response was "Fish lay eggs, don't they?" until you said livebearers lol.

Anyway, wiki has this to say, "it's harder to stop them breeding than to make them do so, with "surprise" fry appearing in community tanks regularly." *

Sorry I couldn't be of much help

You need to get a little isolation net from a local pet supply store, otherwise they will probably be eaten by there parents, and dont be suprised if the little ones start to eat the sicklier of the school

Best thing you can do for livebearers is keep a heavily planted tank with a lot of duckweed or other overhead cover so the little guys (and girls) can hide. Unless you feel like netting Mom and throwing her in a breeding tank every time she looks fat, your best bet is to provide a lot of cover for the small fry to hide in and let nature take its course.

I would get a second tank and isolate the female in it and promptly remove her back to the male's tank once she is finished birthing the brood. You may even hunt down a mom-n-pop pet store that will buy them from you and get some money for your efforts. If you do all that you can rinse and repeat

I breed 100,000 plus commercially a year, of various liverbearers including platies .Please don't use a commercial breeder net they are really bad, quite often the female will stress and abort or die of stress .The design is great but they are way to small .
I recomend going down to the fruit and veg market and asking a store owner for one of their polystyrene boxes (in good condition as some do leak ) that their fruit comes in, they will probably give it to you for free as they normally throw them out anyway .
Anyway fill it with conditioned water and fill it densely with aquatic plants .A plant commonly called Elodea or japanese oxegen weed is best .Add your female and give her privacy .Check twice a day for fry .They will normally sit at the top in the weed as they are attracted to light .Stay still and watch for movement ,they are small .
When observed net the mother up and return her to the tank .They fry will be safe for only a few hours until the hormone levels drop in the parent .Then she will only look at them as food .You can raise your fry in the polystyrene box for a month or so then they should be a safe size to put in the tank with the adults .If you don't want more fry , then yes seperate the sexes .Other wise enjoy the experience .The will breed as youg as 3 months of age .Give birth around 28 days of mating and will give around 20 to 80 young at a time .
I believe you will fall in love with breeding them .You can raise some and trade or sale them to the aquarium store to pay for fish food or maybe a larger tank You wait and see you'll fall in love with the experience , it's addictive .Enjoy being a grandma !

I love how this is in the relationships forum. Hahaha aww that made me giggle.

2 for the price of 1

20 to 80?? JESUS!!

Haha. Thanks for all the advice guys! You can have some baba's named after you if they manage to survive my cluelessness...

So I'll take a trip to get another tank tonight for the little ones when the hormones drop, and isolate Beryl so they're easier to move over when they're born.

...Problem is, I have no idea when she's gonna drop. She looks huge already but like I said, I'm clueless... Anyone know any signs or anything?

I don't wanna seperate her too far from Casanova in the birthing 'case they get stressed... Will the polystyrene work?

Also, I do have a picture of Beryl which I can upload when I get home if it makes it easier to estimate when she's gonna drop... She's pretty big. Bless her.

I'm far more excited than I should be, I think!!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/94bc6620277b.jpg[/atsimg]

The fish shop guy was right about tank size and Goldfish (as I'm finding out to my financial cost at the moment). They can live for 20 something years and get to be 10-11 inches long so you need a huge tank.
You don't usually see them big in shops but they are damn expensive when you do

ayana,
you can pick up a breeding tank and put the fish in there until the eggs hatch

www.aquariumguys.com...


I have a mated pair of clown fish in my tank and they'd lay eggs every few weeks but, sadly, they were gobbled up every time.

a pair of cardinals did the egg drop and hold (the female lays the eggs, the male scoops them up and holds them in his mouth until they hatch) but the female wound up eaten after dropping the eggs (exhaustion slowed her down) and the eggs probably hatched overnight and became food for the tank.

you need to know that small fish get eaten, sucked into filters, chewed up by powerheads etc so the only route is a special holding pen, such as the ones in the link above. just be very careful when you try and move the fish into the holding pen. if you spook her, she'll spew the eggs.

might also want to do some googling for advice specific to the species.

reply to post by Crakeur


Got a breeder today so I just need to know the signs for when she's gonna drop now. She's a livebearer so she won't lay eggs, just spew the babies out, but they'll fall to the bottom then I can get her out and move the babies into the spare tank I've got set up til they're too big, whereby I will switch them into two tanks separated by sex to stop them having more! Far too much hassle this.

Dave: I had goldfish for years in a tiny tank and they were fine. They also never had babies.

reply to post by Ayana


more her before she drops fish, they'll get swept into the current, sucked into the filter or eaten.

reply to post by Crakeur


Think I'm gonna go move her now

reply to post by Ayana


remember, careful so as to not spook her.

reply to post by Crakeur


Yeah! I'm trying not to My mother just went ploughing in and I was like STOP IT! Gah.

reply to post by Crakeur


She's in there now and seems pretty calm about it, anyway

reply to post by Ayana


Aghh I wish you were recording all this for ATS live, It's got everything, danger, suspense, romance and babies!
Oh and fish

reply to post by Ayana


the hard part is over.

do you have food for the babies? they can't eat the flake.