pregnant platys

Question
how can you tell if a platy is pregnant or not. i have a female platy which is quiet big round the stomach im not sure if she is pregnant or not i have a few female platys and a few male platys in my tank, can you help what do i do if she is pregnant.

Answer
hey jill,

platies are bigger in the stomach area and look fuller when they are pregnant. They tend to get some white and/or black spots around their belly (around where the babies are born from). She is most likely pregnant, most females are. From mating once, they can have six litters of babies. They have babies about once every month and a half.

She will probably start to sort of shake within the week before she gives birth,  most livebearers tend to do this strange swim. they sort of swim in place and shake at the same time.

It can be sort of hard to tell, especially in platies, if they are pregnant or when they are going to give birth. More experienced mothers tend to show less signs, especially if they are going to have a smaller litter.

If she's pregnant and you want to raise babies, you will want to get a fry(baby) tank. Adult platies eat babies, so you need to keep them separate if you want them to live. Put a bunch of plants all over the baby tank, and when a mother looks pregnant add her to the tank until she has the babies, then take her back out. Even more successful than this is to get a breeder trap and set it up so it is empty and has the slits open on the bottom (next time you are at a pet store, ask an employee where the breeder traps or breeder nets are and when you see it you will understand what I mean... it's confusing to explain in writing.) Feed them fish flakes crushed into a powder.
If you don't want to raise the babies then just dont worry about the mothers being pregnant. The babies will be born and will probably be eaten, and if any live then you just end u having another fish, but there probably won't be any survivors. Another thing you could try is just putting plants (plastic are better than real) in your tank, and maybe some will hide and live. This is still pretty ineffective because most will wander and some will starve bc they won't be getting fed.

good luck with breeding!
best wishes, chelsey