A fry

Question
I have a brand new 55 gallon tank.  I have gravel, plants (plastic) and hideaways.  I have 2 dalmation mollies, 3 red platys, 2 blue platys, 2 mickey mouse platys and 3 Plecos.  My daughter just found a tiny red baby in the tank, hiding amongst the plants.  A blue platy is hiding under a bridge and acting funny (mommy maybe?).  We caught the baby and put it in a small fish bowl.  He seems fine (tough to catch ... smart bugger ... hid well).

I had really no intention of breeding so I do not have a breeding net.

What do I do?  My daughter will be heartbroken if he gets eaten.  She's very excited about the new baby.  What can you suggest?  Should I get another tank or what?

Answer
Hi Vicki,
Congratulations on the new baby platy!

You can buy special "breeder nets" as they are called that are a plastic framed net covered box that can hold young fish in the main aquarium until they are large enough to be added back to the main tank. This would probably be your best option. The fish bowl is Ok, but the water quality can do bad in that small volume of water very fast. So try to get him into a net breeder as soon as you can. Make sure the net breeder is position so the top edge is above the water line (to prevent any escapees) that way the little fry can be safe from the other fish, have a decent amount of room and still have good water quality from living in the main tank. Or if you are worried, get a 2 gallon tank with a simple little filter, take gravel from your main 55gallon and put it in the 2 gallon and keep your little fry in this tank until he gets bigger.

Feeding the little baby tiny frequent meals throughout the day helps them grow much faster as does daily 20% water changes!

Even if the little fry gets eaten (hope not) don't worry, platies have babies very frequently and there'll be more babies again soon.

Also since this aquarium is newly setup, make sure to check your water quality frequently. Try to test your ammonia and  nitrite levels frequently.

I really hope this helps!