breeding platies

[highliner]

Here is my situation... I think I need more advice or past experience to help me with this one. I have a female platy (wagtail) and she is pregnant I bought at the same time a male ("Mickey mouse platy") he impregnated her and follows her around constantly. I have a higher female platy ratio in my 40 gal community but he is very protective of her (or whatever you wanna call it) when she is pregnant or when he is trying to impregnate her. He does not seem interested in any of the other female platies. Is this normal?
Second part of my question, I put my wagtail and her mate in my 7 gal grow out because shes ready to pop. Last time I moved her to a breeding net without him in the 40gal she miscarried. I also now have another platy (sunset) female ready to pop as well so there is the three of them in the 7gal. I was concerned since she was (wagtail) used to her mate that she might miscarry again, but there is the other platy in there with her now. I just do not really know what to do with this situation to try and encourage 2 healthy births 

[Fishnut]

How did you come to the conclusion that a platty miscarried?  Did you find lots of dead babies or did you find a deflated mother with no babies swimming around?

[soleil1980]

I have been breeding livebearers for quite a while...  They don't really form couples.  I would suggest keeping your females with everyone else until she is ready to pop.  Then you can put her in the breeding trap or put lots of cover in your tank for the little ones to hide.  The adults WILL eat the babies if given a chance. 
At the moment, I have a 110g with sailfin mollies (4 adults) and quite a few babies (about 50).  I have plenty of java moss for hiding.  The babies usually come out at night to feed.
Platies are easy to breed.  I wouldn't go through all the trouble you seem to put yourself through.  Just let nature take its course and make sure you have plenty of hiding spots... also, grind flakes to a powder to feed the little ones.

hope this helps a bit 

[highliner]

Yes deflated mother was how I found out she miscarried. And both female platies as I mentioned above are ready to pop which was why I moved them. I didnt think they formed pairs thanks Soleil was just wondering if there was a reason to this weird behaviour between these two fish and whether I should seperate them or not?

[Fishnut]

Neither platty miscarried...she had the babies and ate them.

Fish don't have miscarriages.  Miscarriages happen in mammals who's pregnancy ends prematurely (as in before the baby can survive on it's own) and out of the blue.  That also results in a dead fetus and a lot of blood...something that can be seen, so you wouldn't simply find a deflated mammal all of a sudden.  Miscarriages do not happen when mammals about to pop...still births happen and live births...both of which produces something you can see.

Why did you decide to call it miscarriage in the first place?

[highliner]

Ok good to know sorry I mixed up a term I read on here. What I read was that someone had livebearers and they said that they start as eggs and than become babies and that the mother dropped the eggs before they had a chance to develop?

[ottawa_fry22]

I've had some strange thing happen to a sword before where clear gel-like round things came out.  I didn't know what to think of that except that maybe they were eggs which did not get fertilized while inside the fish.

Platy males tend to get fixated on a female but when you are not looking, he is probably poking the other females without a doubt. lol

[highliner]

Thanks Ottawa Fry he likely is little sneak lol  but interesting to know that it is common for the male platy to sometimes do that 

[soleil1980]

I would look at your female/male ratio.  Usually, platies are not too bad so 2 or 4 females for each male is ok.  If you have too many males, they can harrass the female to the point where she will die!  Mollies are even worse!  Like I mention before, you would need 3 females per male, lots of room and cover for babies and that`s it.  You should be able to see little ones soon.  From my experience, the babies stay hidden for a few weeks and all of a sudden you are going to see lots of them.  They get more courageous when the get a bit bigger and stronger.

Hope this helps!

Livebearers have the eggs fertilised internally by the male and the eggs hatch inside the female.  That is when the babies come out.  I also saw jelly coming out of my female once.  Everything was ok so I figured the eggs were not fertilised.

[mike1567]

Second part of my question, I put my wagtail and her mate in my 7 gal grow out because shes ready to pop. Last time I moved her to a breeding net without him in the 40gal she miscarried

the male will eat the babies real fast especially in a 7 gal tank (so will the mother)

moving a female ready to pop to a new tank can be an traumatic experience for her, which can cause her to loose her babies

[Nerine]

I have lots of moss and duckweed in my tank along with several caves and little places for the babies...I don't bother with moving them between tanks, the healthy ones will survive and that helps me cut down on which ones I have to cull out which I don't enjoy doing!

As long as you have plenty of places for babies to hide, on the bottom and top of the tank, you will get several healthy babies and only the ones who weren't meant to survive will disappear.

And for sure, make sure your male to female ratio is good! I have a tank of just males and only keep the males I want to breed with in the female tank! which right now is only 2 males to 8 females.

Good luck with your fish!