sunset platy

Question
Hi, We have a pregnant sunset platy. We noticed a baby in the tank on Monday so we put Mom platy in isolation. Today, Thursday she had about 8 babies but still looks like she's ready to burst. How long does this usually take? How many can babies should we expect? Thanks , Kevin

Answer
Well Kevin thanks for your question..
Usually a platy will have about 20 to 40 babies, but i have seen up to 150 in rare cases. It can take a while sometimes three to five days. One thing you need to remember is the mother will try to eat the fry soon after they are born. To prevent this, you can remove the mother, or add a lot of floating plants for the fry to hide in. If you haven't done so you will need to grind up some flake food really fine, with your fingers, before feeding. This will need to be done for a month or so, until they fry are large enough to eat larger food such as frozen brine shrimp which will help them grow faster.


I hope this helps you....

Feel free to ask any other questions you might have..
                                                                        Thanks

                                                                 Aaron Brandstatter