Platy fry - now what?

[wheelyfeet]

I didn't intend on breeding Platy, but we have males and females, so it was bound to happen. I wouldn't go to extraordinary measures for the guppies, but these are from a dwarf platy, and I'd kind of like to save them.

When I could see the fry eyeballs through the Platy's abdomen, I placed fry grass in the tank. This morning, I could see she was no longer pregnant and found 2 fry in the grass. I have placed a large fish net around the fry grass so that the big fish can't get to them for a snack. I've also ground up some tetramin flakes for food.

What else should I do?

[amanichen]

I don't have anything specific to say, other than general guidelines for fish fry:

1. Feed them high protein foods, preferrably live. While you can raise livebearers on flake food, small live foods will be beneficial to their long term health.

2. Keep the water quality high. Fry are more sensitive to water quality than adults.

[wheelyfeet]

I went out a bought a fry net and transfered the two fry to it. Then I decided to take the driftwood out and check - just in case. We found two more fry. Boy were they a pain to catch. With the logs out, I took the opportunity to vacuum thoroughly and do a water change. I usually do a 25% change once a week, but I'll up it maybe 15% to twice a week. My ammonia and nitrites are always 0 and nitrates are barely legible.

I picked up some fry food. I don't have a local resource for live food so I chopped up some frozen blood worms into micro sized pieces. I'll have to pick up a turkey baster to vacuum out their net.

[sawcat]

If you're vacumn also siphons water out, check it for more fry. I inadvertantly sucked out a few of my fry that way. found one in the bucket of water a day after cleaning.