Good news and bad news

[OrchidNow]

My platys had babies. 2 that my kids can see.

I only saw one so far and it's so tiny, I don't see it very often even when I'm watching the tank for minutes. My kids think I'm excited like a 2year old.

Bad news - the new goldfish I bought died. They were different looking. They have a black top all the way through. But they have died within days of each other. Personally I think it's 'cos they didn't put in too much water when I bought them and I think every time my car turn, they fell on the side and was only covered in about 1 inch of water.

[OrchidNow]

Oops...forgot to ask my question. How do I increase the chance of the babies not been eaten? I think my kids are over-feeding them to discourage them from doing this. No one will admit to it but the food level seems to be dropping in the package. And I always thought that over-feeding will kill them.

[zima]

Hi Orchid,

Sorry to hear about the gold fish. 1" of water does not seem to be enough for sure. Even if it covers the fish and lets them stay under the water, the shaking from the car and the turns most likely contributed to extra stress. Add to this the lack of water, this might be an explanation. I'm sure you'll get more meanigful postings than mine!

As for the platties - congrats fish daddy! It's always exciting the first few timed you get fry, but be careful what you are wishing for with the platties. They are livebearers, and are able to have babies every 28 days (I think). And once they started having babies, they never stop. My sunset platties (1 m, 2f) have their fry all the time - I end up giving away lots of free fishies.

[BigDaddy]

Dont overfeed.  It will just create the potential for poor water quality with any uneaten food which will in turn potentially cause more fry to be lost.

Livebearers have tons of fry for a reason, they expect a lot to get eaten.  How big a tank is it and what other fish are in there?

[OrchidNow]

One of my platty died. And another one looks sick. He/she is sitting at the bottom of the tank . In fact a number of them are. I hope they are not getting sick. I just told my kids NOT to feed them anymore and I'm hiding the food. This is so stressful!
It's a 15g or 20g and it used to have 8 platties....now 7.

The only new thing in the tank is some water cabbage/lettuce?

[dan2x38]

What is the ratio of males to females?

[OrchidNow]

2 males and 6 females originally.
They are all dead as of today.