# NEED HELP QUICK



## tyourkie66 (Mar 13, 2003)

my platty just had babies. what do i do to keep them alive? what do i feed them? how do i take care of them? can i spyhin my gravel or do i have to wait until they swim around in the water first.

right now they are in the gravel.


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## Corona (May 9, 2003)

Finely ground flake food would be fine, It shouldnt be real long before they are out and swimming, so just hold off on gravel vacing for now. I dont know much about platties, so i dont know of any special needs, Hopefully somone will come along that can further elaberate.


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## bgshortys (Apr 7, 2003)

The babies will swim around as soon as they get used to their fins which will be anywhere from an hour to a day. Make shure none of the other fish will eat them though. I use Lee's brand hang on breeding net as a matureation area for the fish. For food, EXTREMELY fine powdard flakes will work. The higher protien content the better (My flakes are 49% protien). Feed a tiny tiny pinch 3 times a day. To get the food to the powder form, dump a little into a plastic bag and rub your fingers between the flakes to crush them. It takes like 5 minutes for them to be at the fine powder form.

If you don't have a breeding net, wait till the fry swim before you siphon the gravel and prey your other fish don't eat them. I personally think it is best to isolate them for a while so the other fish don't steal their food.


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

yeah isolate them, try to avoid changes in water condition, feed them ground up fish foods - what I do is get all of my dried foods and grind them all up into fine powder.

and get some plants like cabomba.

and turn off any filters where they could get stuck in (some are suitable but not box filters or any with a water intake area)


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

I was taking care of some platy fry for 6 weeks, from birth, till just recently when I got tired of babysitting the damn things and threw the little buggers into my cichlid tank, where they were instantaneously vacuumed up by said cichlids.

I kept them in one of those tiny little Small World tanks, in about 10 ounces of water, since they are soooo damned small. I had NO filter or heater (still water), and they all survived temperature ranges from 60 degrees to 80. They ate hand-crushed flakes that I let sink to the bottom. The crushed flakes were way too big for them to eat whole, but they still had no trouble nibbling on them. I used a little plastic air hose to siphon uneaten food/change water, daily. I changed from 25% to *75%* each time every day, using water from my other aquariums to fill their little tank back up.

NONE of them EVER died, so that goes to show that the little buggers are quite hardy, even if they're barely viewable by the naked eye


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## bgshortys (Apr 7, 2003)

Yup
there are many different ways to raise fry. Since the platies are captive bred, that makes them more hardier to aquarium conditions.


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