hello again

Question
So  i know by now u are probably tired of seeing my name, lol:) but i read the info you gave me on my platy and after careful and prolonged peroids of watching have concluded that i have a pregnant female platy. the question is now what do i do? do i have to by a  trap, why can't i leave them in the tank once they are born? do i separate the female? does the male take part in the birth, like building a bubble nest or is that only bettas? all the info you can give me on  food to feed them, where to put her and what to expect will be helpful. also how will i know if she is giving birth? if i choose to leave her in the tank will she or any of my other fish eat the babies? i have one glofish, two other platies, (one male mickey mouse and i think one female sunburst)i also have a plecto. i have a 16gallon size tank and good hiding bush. my only problem is that i may not have suffcient funds to support the fry, i.e. removing them from the tannk, so if it can be done in the tank that would be great. last question, i only feed my fish once a day, do i now increase the feeding times for them? sorry about all the questions, thank again.

Answer
Hi Diana
Nah, and no problem with all the questions :)  Gotta learn sometime right lol....

That's good, I guess that it's a female then.  At least, better then it being sick anyway :)  No, the male won't take any part.  In fact, he may harass the female when she's having them so he can eat the fry....Yes, the parents and the other fish can/will eat the fry.  So, you just need to figure out what you want to do with them.  Livebearers can have fry every month, and they can have anywhere from 1-50+ fry at a time, with around 10-20 probably more the average.  That's a lot of fish if you try to save them all.  And keep in mind, those fry will grow up and will interbreed amongst themselves and with the parents, and it just goes on and on and on....You can get one of those nets or traps that hang on the side of the tank.  There's 2 kinds a plastic one and a netting type one.  I don't like either, but if you go with one, go with the net one.  It'll allow a little bit more water flow through it.  I don't like them because fry poop a lot....and it's a pain to try to remove them to clean it out, and the water flow isn't that great through it.

You could also go with a separate tank, usually a 5 or 10 gallon bare bottom with a filter and heater is all that's needed.  But again, what are you gonna do with all those fish once they grow?  Being that they are such prolific breeders, it can be very difficult to even give them away.  I have some dwarf platies, started out with 4, and I have no clue how many I have now lol, but I have 8 tanks and they're scattered throughout just about all of them.
Another option, and what I generally recommend(and also what I'm now doing for my own)is just let nature take it's course with the fry.  If they're good at hiding, they'll survive.  Plants and other decorations work fairly good at providing cover/hiding places for them.  I have java moss that's almost gotten out of control in one of my tanks, and they love hiding in that stuff.  

I would only separate the female if you're going to use a separate tank.  Don't put her in a breeding net/trap, that just stresses her out.  Usually when she's ready to drop the fry(they're live now, come out kind of folded in half), she'll usually hang out at the bottom and start breathing heavy.  She will probably go near a place that has some hiding spots for the fry, plus it gives her a break from the males.  Only bettas, gouramis, and paradise fish will do the bubble nest thing.  
For feedings, when I separated mine in a separate tank, I would start out with some frozen and thawed baby brine shrimp for the first few days, then graduate to regular flake food crushed up.  If you leave the fry in the tank, and what I currently do as well, I just use regular flake food and I'll sprinkled some at the top for the adults and crush up a little bit and put it directly in the filter waterfall/output so it spreads the smaller pieces around.  The fry will stay in hiding while they're small, but will snag pieces of food as it floats by.  I would still just feed once a day.  When I separated mine, I fed them twice day for the first few days, but since it's the main tank, I wouldn't risk fouling up the water by any uneaten food from the extra feedings, not to mention the other fish will get fat and may cause them problems.

Think I covered everything....let me know if I missed something, or if you have more questions.  Good luck!
Oh, one last thing, since you do have a female, it's recommended to keep 1 male to at least 2-3 females for livebearers.  Reason being, the males will constantly harrass the females, and if it's just one female, it could stress her out so bad even kill her.  But, if you have 2 or more females, that'll mean lots and lots of fry....So, you might want to give thought to returning some and getting all the same sexes.  

Christy