Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

could my platys be pregnant

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PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)
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03 Jun 2008 23:26 #1 by PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)

could my platys be pregnant was created by PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)

Hi all,i'm back again with more silly questions,i have my tank up and running for about three months now,when i stocked it i put in four zebra danios,four platys(all female),two dalmation mollies(both female),one common pleco,a while later i added six neon tetras,and soon after three guppies which all died and brought the neon tetras with them,i've since added six glowlight tetras which are doing great,last weekend was in lfs for a look,ended up coming home with what i thought were three beautiful deep orange and yellow platys but was in fact two mollies and one platy,anyway back to my point,i never noticed til i placed the new platy in but my original four platys are monstrous,three of which have very big bellies and a distinct black spot near the anal fin(gravid spot??),could it be possible that the platys could be pregnant even though i have four females,i have them at least three months now,probably closer to four,i'm trying to get my hands on a bigger tank,want something that fills the alcove in my sitting room,bought the smaller one to see if i'd have enough interest to stick with and i love it,now i want bigger,anyway i'm waffling again,my question is could my platys be pregnant and if so should i leave them in the smaller tank until the fry are born

Thanks

Paul

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JohnH (John)
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04 Jun 2008 08:35 - 04 Jun 2008 08:38 #2 by JohnH (John)

Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re:could my platys be pregnant

Paul, hello again.
Firstly there's no need for you to feel you need to apologise, we all started sometime. And to quote Mickey:'The only silly questions are the ones you don't ask' - well, that mightn't be word for word but it gives you an idea.

I have found female Platies to be among the longest 'holding' of all the 'popular' Livebearers but there's a chance that they may well have had a brood or two unnoticed and the fry have been eaten by the other residents...full grown Zebras would easily be able to manage a newly born Platy (I've seen it happen) and Glowlights have been known to 'snack' on fry too.
Female Livebearers can carry the sperm from males for a good few broods, I've heard of five but cannot confirm this.
In other words, your females could be carrying sperm from a mating from when they were last with a male, but it also isn't unheard of for other livebearer males to mate with 'other' females so they could even be carrying hybrids - but let's hope this isn't the case!

So my advice would be that if they're 'huge' then just leave them alone...both Platy and Molly females can abort if moved close to 'birthing'. If you can move out the remainder of the fish, as well as the females once they've given birth this would be of great help too - although don't move the mothers immediately, that trauma so soon after the other trauma of giving birth could just prove to be fatal...and anyway, with four females you can afford to lose a few fry in the name of trying to build them back to full fitness...

Let us know how it goes.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.

ITFS member.

It's a long way to Tipperary.

Last edit: 04 Jun 2008 08:38 by JohnH (John). Reason: Forgot about the Glowlights

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PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)
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04 Jun 2008 14:24 #3 by PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)

Replied by PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE) on topic Re:could my platys be pregnant

thanks john,i was going to move all the rest of the fish to the bigger tank and leave the platys in the smaller tank,would this be ok or should i leave them all in there for now,cant move them yet anyway,still havn't sourced a bigger tank,also one of the danios has a fairly big belly,any ideas what to do with those or should i just let them be and let nature take its course
Thanks

Paul

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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

could my platys be pregnant