Fry Tank ?
- Thread starter FishGeek
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Well, platys aren't very hard to breed, as easy as guppys. For equipment you'll need a heater, a sponge filter lots and lots of plants, a light and gravel. Platy males are more tolerent of each other then, say,swordtails but if you hace to breeding males they will fight. To breed platys put a mlae and up to three females in the breeding/fry tank and let them do their thing. The male will chase the females and afterwards they will mate and after a few weeks the female will release the fry after which they must be removed so they can rest and so they won't eat the young. Never try and beed a pair, the male will court the female to distraction. The fry need small food to start such as our old favorite, newely hatched brine shrimp. After they get bigger they can eat pretty much anything that won't make them sick. As for feeding them to you're fish, I would put in a couple at first, if they get eatn and the other fish are still hungry feed a couple more until you find the exact number that the fish will eat. What are the fish you're feeding them to, BTW, I'd really like to know. I really like predatory fish.
Are you talking about a tank just for the fry, or for breeding and housing the fry as well? For breeding, I would use sandtiger's suggestion above. But if it's just for fry, I could tell you that you can live without the filter if it's only a couple of weeks. I used to house hundreds of fry in a 5G without a filter and it was fine. But then again, I did water changes every 3-4 days. I started breeding way way more so I now have them in a 10G with a filter cause there's way more fry now. But with only a few fry, a 5G unfiltered did good.
As sandtiger says, what are you feeding? I'm curious too. Just a heads up, if you're breeding to feed (like I am) I suggest you get a lot more fish to breed. Otherwise, you wouldn't get much fry from one fish if you expect to get a good amount of fish to feed another fish. I myself have about 15-20 females in a bunch of different tanks so I get a few fish dropping fry every week. And even at that, those fry don't get fed for another 2 months to my oscars & pacus. (They're quite large so I wait til the fry get about 2 inches) But I guess it's cool if you're just giving your other fish a snack just once in a while.
Oh and Sandtiger... I have 2 8" oscars and 2 almost 10" pacus. All awesome predators.
As sandtiger says, what are you feeding? I'm curious too. Just a heads up, if you're breeding to feed (like I am) I suggest you get a lot more fish to breed. Otherwise, you wouldn't get much fry from one fish if you expect to get a good amount of fish to feed another fish. I myself have about 15-20 females in a bunch of different tanks so I get a few fish dropping fry every week. And even at that, those fry don't get fed for another 2 months to my oscars & pacus. (They're quite large so I wait til the fry get about 2 inches) But I guess it's cool if you're just giving your other fish a snack just once in a while.
Oh and Sandtiger... I have 2 8" oscars and 2 almost 10" pacus.
All awesome predators.I am breeding them to feed to the fish in my 29G. I am just doing it to add to their diet. I just liked these particular Platies but I had no idea what I could do with the fry. But I figured something out. I am not looking to feed this to my fish every day.
I just wanted to know if I should have plants and/or gravel in the fry tank. And yes they are going to be in the tank by themselves. I just heard that if it is just fry then you dont need gravel or even plants; makes it easier to catch.
???
I just wanted to know if I should have plants and/or gravel in the fry tank. And yes they are going to be in the tank by themselves. I just heard that if it is just fry then you dont need gravel or even plants; makes it easier to catch.
???
Whether I buy frozen larvae or not something is still going to be killed. (Sorry that just drives me nuts when someone says just buy the frozen... it was still killed.)I really like the platies and I wanted something to do with the fry. I am not feeding all of them to the fish but I thought that they would enjoy a nice fresh catch. The rest are going back to the pet store (in case anyone was wondering where the rest were going.)
For just a trio, you can deal with a 10. And maybe even a couple more females and males into that too. And you can start with breeding some cichlids like kribs or something, I heard they're easy. I don't know too much about that though. Right now I breed livebearers and am trying to breed some dwarf rams so don't know too much about others.