Monday, January 2, 2012

Do you think my Platy fish are pregnant?

They are definatly females. You can tell the difference by the fin under the belly. A female is more triangle shaped and the male is a longer almost stick like fin that is pointed. It looks to me like they very well may be pregnant. Sometimes platies don't show the typical big belly and gravid (black) spot. I have had 3 females in the last 2 months give birth and I didn't know they were even pregnant since they never got big bellied and none of them had a gravid spot. Usually the gestation period for platies is around 28-30 days. A female can store sperm in them for many months and wait until they are ready and the conditions in the tank are right in order to get pregnant. Since you really don't know exactly when she got pregnant the only way to know when they will give birth is to keep a close eye on them. Sometimes when they are close to giving birth they hover in one spot or try to hide. They can get alittle more aggressive towards other tankmates. Other fish may follow them around more. They may not eat as well as usual. They may dart around the tank and act "off". But they don't always do these things. I had a platy that I didn't even know she was pregnant (belly wasn't big at all) and she was acting normal and when I went to feed them, she swam up to the top and was going back and forth waiting for the food and out popped on baby. And then another and another and so on. The whole time she was popping out babies she kept right on eating like nothing was happening. You have to watch closely if you want to keep the babies. Otherwise the tankmates and the parents will eat the babies as soon as they catch them. If they have them and you don't see it, check in the gravel (the babies like to burrow down into the gravel to hide) and check in plants or along the bottom edges of decor and such. Good luck and I hope you are able to see it when they give birth. It's pretty cool to see.

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