# Fryyy.



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Okay so I had a surprise batch of fry (not betta fry, but I thought I'd ask anyway) and they're now three days old. 

Obviously I was totally unprepared to raise fry, but I didn't want them to become lunch for the adult fish so I separated them into a small container which is floating in Lucifer's tank. I've dumped a bunch of Java ferns into the container for the babies to hide in. All 18 babies are still alive and zipping around their little "tank" and I'm hoping to raise as many as possible to adulthood. 

My main concern is, how do I know if they're eating? Their bellies aren't bulging out. I suppose if the fry haven't eaten in three days they would have died, right? I've been feeding them egg yolk and Tetra MinBaby flakes or something like that (it's basically powder). I've seen them munching on the egg a few times but it's so hard to tell  I've started to make green water for them by filling up a large glass with tank water, putting some liquid ferts and a piece of algae and keeping the whole thing under light. It'll take a couple of days until I see any results with this - if it even works, that is. I've also read somewhere that I could feed them vinegar eels. I have apple cider vinegar at home so I could maybe use that. But how? Also, how do I culture infusoria? There's so much conflicting information on the Internet :/ 

The fry are getting full water changes daily as the container is really small. They'll get their own 2.5 gallon tank once the heaters come in. It's so difficult catching them for the water changes, the little buggers are so fast! The tank they're floating in is at 80 degrees so their water will be somewhere around that mark too. I don't have a spare thermometer to check. I hope the warm water will encourage them to grow faster and eat. I'm so paranoid about them  

I also have another female and I can't tell whether she's pregnant or just fat. Would it be okay to post a picture of her here? As I said, they're not bettas (although I obviously keep those too). It would be nice to be prepared if I'm gonna have another batch of fry :/

Edit, I forgot to mention that I have a selection of frozen foods too. I've tried feeding them the smaller ones such as daphnia and cyclops, but they don't seem too interested. I thought about using a cheese grater and grating down a cube of something but I'm not sure if the other household members would be too happy about me doing that haha. The adults are getting a piece of cucumber today so I'll see if the babies are interested too.


----------



## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

What kind of fry are they> You never did say, haha.


----------



## Alaura123 (Jul 4, 2014)

Guppy fry?


----------



## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

If they're molly fry, you can give them an algae wafer. They'll eat that, and it's good for them. They may also accept blanched vegetables - while mollies are "omnivores" they eat mostly algae and vegetable matter. They'll accept meat as well, but it's not as good for them I don't think.


----------



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

They're platies haha.

The mum of the fry isn't feeling too great. She's just sitting at the bottom half of the time and looks skinny. I'm not sure how to encourage her to eat: usually when there's food and one notices and starts eating, the others soon follow. But she just swims up, eats a few crumbs and goes to rest again. Not sure what's wrong with her, she looks healthy otherwise. Could it be possible that the birth just exhausted her to the point where she's now unwell?


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Most likely she's exhausted. With my guppies, when the mother gives birth she'll hide while she's birthing and continue to hide for few days after, just resting. If she's still eating something, that's a good sign. Keep her with as less stress as possible, if you can move her somewhere quiet without her stressing then do it but if you can't, just leave her alone until it becomes apparent if she's really sick.

For the fry, honestly I just feed a high quality flake that's been crushed up. I use NLS flakes for my baby guppies and they do just fine with it. Infusoria is naturally on plants so if you have live plants with them then they should be set with that.


----------



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Video I took last night.

The mum was fine during and after birth. It became obvious yesterday that she's unwell, poor thing  my females (apart from the one I think is pregnant) all look quite thin compared to the males. Not sure what's going on, I hope they'll get better once the heater for the 54L comes in so I can put them there. I've just fed them some flakes and the males were eating while the females were just sitting around. And then suddenly my blue female chased the golden (mum of the fry) so she'd go up to the surface to eat. Everyone excluding the blue female are eating flakes right now so that's good. They weren't interested in the cucumber - the blue one just claimed it as her hiding spot haha. She's getting quite nippy with the other's, grumpy little thing.

I have the powder for babies but as I said, it's hard to tell if they're eating. I'd imagine they are as I've had no deaths yet. I'm about to change their water and do the daily count, hopefully all 18 are there.


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Cuties! They look good and healthy at least! They should start to really eat soon, just keep feeding them (don't give them TOO much though) and do the water changes and they should be just fine! Do you have a breeder net you can use to keep them in the tank but separated from the others? It's easier because that way you don't have to do ten million water changes on a random container and they stay healthier. I usually put some sort of plant in with them whether it's a baby water sprite, anacharis, myrio, anything to give them some sort of cover.

Sounds like the blue one may be ready to give birth too? That's about the usual behavior for a livebearer ready to give birth; grumpy and they stake a territory to give birth in and chase everyone else off if they get too close. They usually go for a corner or some hidey hole to hide in.


----------



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

They're adorable, aren't they? :3 I've gotten quite attached to these babies, all 18 are still alive and doing well. I don't have a breeder net, as I said, I wasn't prepared to have fry! They're fine in their container for now, the daily water changes aren't a hassle at all. It takes maybe ten minutes if the babies are cooperating haha. I have to catch everyone one by one (I use the cap of my water conditioner to do this lol), move them to a separate container and clean out their one because there's always some food on the bottom. I fill that back up, add conditioner and play the baby hunt again. They have java ferns in their container: the video was done during a water change when they were in a temporary one  

The blue one isn't fat though :/ I don't think she's pregnant, but then again, the golden girl who have birth wasn't exactly fat either. 

I bought another two today, one male and female. The male just died on me, what the heck. I acclimated them as I would with any other fish, so it wasn't shock. He wasn't attacked by anyone either, my other male is very peaceful and the girls are chilled out. I'm really annoyed, I've not had a fish die on me yet. The staff at the pet store where I got him from were soooo rude and unprofessional, I don't think I'll be going back there. Maybe to complain and cause a riot, I wonder if they would give me a refund or another fish if I brought him back. It was only £2.40 but he was pretty and they had a few others like him ugh.

The female I bought today too (same pet store as the male, she was too pretty to pass by) seems okay, but as I've mentioned earlier, I'm not sure whether she's pregnant or not. 








Yay or nay? 

Lucifer kept photo bombing me haha. He was like "take pictures of me hooman, not dis strange creature!" Haha. He's being surprisingly friendly to his guests, other than trying to eat the babies he doesn't even flare at them c:


----------



## ellekay (Nov 11, 2014)

Cute!!!


----------



## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

If the females were together with males in the store, she is most likely pregnant. They will be pregnant for a few months - giving birth every month. . . . not sure what to call that (keeping sperm or future fertilized eggs). But she might not give birth anytime soon.

livebearer fry are IMO easy to keep. You can literally feed them anything - whether veggy based or meat based. They don't eat much and you won't be able to see their bellies bulging, at least not in the first two weeks. So feed sparingly and keep up with water changes.

If you want live bearer specific, try this section - Livebearers
Tropicalfishkeeping.com is the "mother" site of bettafish.com. You can use the same user name and password.


----------



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Yes, females and males were mixed together, as far as I could tell. 

I have to agree with you there: I haven't had any deaths yet even though I have no idea what I'm doing. I've been feeding a little less - only two drops of egg last night with a little bit of frozen daphnia, and a soaked end of a toothpick of powder this morning. They must be eating something since they're not dying and are active. 

Thanks for the link! I'll go post there too


----------



## selah (Oct 14, 2014)

do you have a large piece of Java Moss somewhere? I had platy babies born in a 20G community tank years ago and they survived in Java Moss until they were too big to eat, even by a young angel fish.


----------



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

All the fry died sometime during the day. 

I feel sick. Something is killing my fish and I don't know what it is. I'm really upset about the babies... I've lost the male I bought yesterday, he literally died within three hours of me bringing him home. I've kept the body so I could examine it once I had a little time, and I've noticed that he has a nasty looking green/brown patch on his side. No idea what it is. My tuxedo female passed away shortly after I got home today and now my blue female is laying on her side at the bottom of the container. She's still breathing and occasionally flopping up and swimming a little, but she'll be dead soon. The female I bought yesterday just have birth to a baby: from what I see it has a yolk sac so it's probably premature and won't make it. 

I'm really upset and the whole thing is just breaking my heart. I'm leaving my fish for the next couple of hours and going away to see my boyfriend because I really need someone to comfort me. I know I should probably stay with my fish but I just can't handle it. 

At least my beloved bettas aren't dying, although I'm scared that whatever that platy male had could have passed into them too. They haven't been in contact directly but I only have one tweezers which I use all my fish so equipment was shared... 

I'll post again later with an update on the newborn fry.


----------



## Nimble (Aug 31, 2014)

You may have accidentally exposed some kind of disease to your fish when you brought something new in. The new male may have been sick, and brought the disease to the rest of your tank.


----------



## ellekay (Nov 11, 2014)

+^ That was my initial thought.

Were they all from the same tank in the store? I realize most chain stores use the same water/filtration/air/etc for all of their tanks on the wall, but I refuse to purchase a fish out of a tank with other sick/dying fish in it, even if it's the only one like that and what I've been looking for. I wait. 

I would qt any sick one, shoot - all of them for that matter, if possible. Especially if it's spreading that quickly.

Sorry to hear that! I gotta get a new qt tank before I get more platys for my 10g.


----------



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Well, the initial group of four was from two different tanks: the male from one and the females from a different. The newer two were from a totally different store, and both were from different tanks. I still have hopes for the female as she had no contact with the sick male at all. She sits around at the bottom quite a lot, but it's hard to tell whether it's because she's pregnant or ill. She does, however, move quite vigorously when I put my poking stick near her ( for poking soil, not fish). 

The blue female passed away while I was at my boyfriend's house. The newborn fry is alive and as far as I can tell, no others have been born. I moved the mum into my 54L. The mum of the original eighteen fry that died today isn't looking great, I'm expecting her to pass away at night. I know the chances are slim, but I really hope the white male survives... My little sister (she's like nine) named him Marco and she's quite upset that "Marco's crew" is dying off. He's also my favourite out of all the platies so yeah...

I'm actually about to give up on keeping these fish. Can't do anything right...


----------



## Ilovebettasbk11 (Nov 12, 2013)

Man that sucks, sorry to hear that! But please dont beat up on yourself for it you are a good fish keeper we all have those days


----------



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Thanks for the kind words ^^

I've lost all six of my adult platies (including Marco) and the eighteen babies. The premature baby which was born yesterday is alive, but I'm not expecting it to hold on much longer. Chances are, it'll become a snack for Lucifer.

I'm trying not to beat myself up over this too much: everyone's telling me that I've done my best and that it wasn't my fault, but I still feel like it was. I'll drain the tanks and clean everything out and maybe start again.


----------



## Ilovebettasbk11 (Nov 12, 2013)

How fun it would be to breed my betta lol but i got no room sadly for 100 babys lol

Just thinking this lol not that i really want to do it


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Kisiel, was there anything new about that tub? New decorations? New plants or leafs? Can you find out if they've had any die at the store as well? Just call in and ask, it should be fine to do that. If they have then it's definitely not you, it would be the store and whatever they came in with. Was the tub used before or brand new? It was a storage bin type tub, yes? Or actual tank?


----------



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

Not going back to that store and I'd prefer not to contact them either. I'll ask my boyfriend if he can go have a look next time he's at work, as he works about ten minutes from the store. The staff were so rude I really don't want to deal with them anymore. I did see a dead platy when I was buying mine though, it was, however, in a different tank. 

Nothing new in there, just plants I've had for a while. The only "new" thing I've tried was the soil, but I've been poking it to make sure it doesn't become anaerobic. The tub is a storage tub, not a proper tank. It was brand new, but obviously I rinsed it well before using. 

I have no platies left. I don't know whether I'll want to try again with them in the future. So much for wanting something different from a betta :/


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I'm sorry :-(


----------



## Kisiel (Jul 30, 2014)

It's alright. I'm feeling better today. Last night I done water changes on Lucifer's and Perseus's tanks and both boys are feeling well. They're swimming around and eating as normal. I can't tell whether Lucifer has been biting his tail again or has fin rot, I'll need to post in the diseases section ugh. But other than that, everything's fine now. 

Now that the tub is empty, I've posted another thread as I don't know what to stock it with. I'll probably go for a betta and some small schooling fish, but there are other options, so if anyone wants to throw some suggestions at me, here's the thread. 

Did I mention that the premature baby passed away yesterday too? That was obviously going to happen, but I wasn't expecting it to hold on for a day. I thought it would just die within minutes after birth. Apparently not haha.


----------



## ellekay (Nov 11, 2014)

So I had this huge long post all typed up (on my Kindle) and for some reason after I hit post, nothing happened, but it was gone. I'll do my best to remember it all...

Don't give up. A little over a month ago I purchased a betta and a tank from a particular Petco. Brought said fish home, did everything right, and 36 hours later, that fish was dead. Scrubbed the tank, cleaned everything and exchanged dead fish for a live fish. That fish lasted 5 days. I exchanged tank and returned the fish and was about to give up on bettas altogether (even though I've kept them successfully before). I was pretty upset and wasn't really sure I even wanted fish at all. Hubby and I decided to go ahead and set up the 10g tank, put the plants in and let it sit for a few days (almost 2 weeks actually) before I was ready to try fish again. We decided we'd start with a community tank, of fish (mostly he) we have had before. That's when I got my platys. Neither of us have had them before, but we needed something with our other planned fish. I researched them and found that they are one of the hardier fish species, so I thought I'd give them a go. I wasn't about to go back to the same Petco, as it was obviously a bad store for fish. I went to Petsmart instead. Granted, I had looked at other Petcos and Petsmarts for fish, but decided this particular store had healthier looking fish. They were also getting a new shipment acclimated while I was there, which helped. I brought those two girls home and they have thrived and grown before my eyes. That was a month ago. Sunday, I decided I'd give bettas another go, especially because I found the color combo I had been hoping to find somewhere (without costing an arm and a leg) and a little baby that I just couldn't say no to. I got both of those fish from a different Petco than before. I refuse to buy fish from that first store, no matter if they're the only one that carries a particular fish. I just don't trust them, yet. And both of the bettas (knock on wood) are doing really well so far.

My point is, don't give up just yet. Set the tank back up, plant it, and get familiar with the soil based tanks and let the tank tell you what it wants. Find some other fish if you'd like, but don't give up on one kind just because you had a horrible experience. Platys are amazing little fish. I think the store just had some sick fish to begin with.

Hugs!


----------



## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Sorry for your loss Kisiel. But as ellekay said - don't give up. Everyone (I know I have) has experienced a good share of losses. 

About soil based tanks; if I'm not mistaken is a little different from non soil substrates. It may take 6 months to cycle. But once it does, it may become a mini ecosystem (better than non soil). So, look it up before you try soil base.

If you want a community of live bearer and betta, I'd suggest not getting platies because they are known to nip slower fish. Guppies or mollies are better tank mates.


----------

