Gravid Spot

erin14

erin14

Canadian, Eh?
Aug 7, 2007
638
0
0
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
Wasn't sure if I should post this in the photo section or here...but I was wondering, can someone post a picture of what a gravid spot looks like on a platy (preferably a picture of their own platy)? I tried to google it but didn't really get any good answers. I'm 99% postive my one platy is pregnant but she gets super fat like shes about to explode and i see this dark area on her that i think is the gravid spot (more like a gravid area/patch) and then the next morning she'll be thinner, but I see no babies. I have thick floating plants for the fry to hide in so I can't imagine that every last one of them is getting eaten, atleast one of the fry should survive right but i never see any? Obviously I can't always be sitting in front of the tank watching to see if she does have the babies (believe me, I would if I could). There is also a sponge covering the intake tube to prevent them from being sucked up. She looks pretty fat again now, so i turned off the lights in hopes that the fishies would think it was sleep time and hopefully if she did give birth they wouldn't get eaten. I have 2 other females as well, which I also think are pregnant but they're not bulging yet like this one is. Is there any signs I should look for or notice before she gives birth? She always just acts like her normal self, pooping and looking for food (typical platy). Although, the other night, kind of gross but, she had a realllllly thick poop and I never saw this before. I wondered if maybe it was a sign. I know that platies are prolific breeders somewhat like guppies and I don't intend on keeping all the fry (don't hate me but free food right?), but I would like maybe 2 or 3 to survive, so I can see what they end up looking like because every platy i own is different and there are no two that look the same (sunset, red wag, mickey mouse, sun burst, calico, etc.). If more then 3 babies survive, the store I work in will take them and I can get something free, so thats my 2 plans. Any help is appreciated.

Oh, its the 20g. if anyone was wondering for whatever reason.
 
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The fry could have been eaten quickly as they are dropped by their mother. I don't have pics of my own platies but here's a pic of one by a member of another forum. Does that help?
33060521ec8.jpg
 
a gravid spot is rather obvious. A non pregnant fish will be somewhat solid in color, a pregnant fish will have a large black spot or blotch near its rear. The larger the spot the more fry you can expect. A swollen fish with no huge spot usually means its eating a lot, hence the large poo...

Fry generally sink to the bottom in search of cover, so floating plants imo arent helpfull at all...

If u have a swollen fish with a pronounced gravid spot, get a breeder trap, especially if think they are having babes an you cant see them, because they are hidden in the substrate or eaten. a breeder trap puts the mom above a "screen" wich separates the young. they sink to the bottom through the screen and when the mother is done birthing you can remove her and the screen, and allow the fry to live in the breeder until their big enough to release
 
boostnbuds said:
a gravid spot is rather obvious. A non pregnant fish will be somewhat solid in color, a pregnant fish will have a large black spot or blotch near its rear. The larger the spot the more fry you can expect. A swollen fish with no huge spot usually means its eating a lot, hence the large poo...

Fry generally sink to the bottom in search of cover, so floating plants imo arent helpfull at all...

If u have a swollen fish with a pronounced gravid spot, get a breeder trap, especially if think they are having babes an you cant see them, because they are hidden in the substrate or eaten. a breeder trap puts the mom above a "screen" wich separates the young. they sink to the bottom through the screen and when the mother is done birthing you can remove her and the screen, and allow the fry to live in the breeder until their big enough to release
Click to expand...

yea but dont they say.. if you put the pregnant fish into the breeder too early theres a chance for an early pregnancy.. (or w/e they call it)

a week ago i came home to find tiny molly fry everywhere in my tank.. and though they say that they tend to sink/stay at the bottom.. well not here, they were swimming everywhere, plenty were at the top.. so the whole sinking thing is just for the first hour or so until they get used to swimming then they start to explore.. and now a week later the female is all swollen again
 
They only sink to the bottom until they start trying to swim. After that, they go where they please. In a heavily populated tank though they are, as boostnbuds said, not likely to make the cover of the plants that are floating. To get a large numbr of survivors, you almost need a separate small tank, maybe your quarantine tank, with lots of cover so the fry only need to escape mom and they have plenty of places to do so.
 
I have a 10G fry tank that has a ~8" diameter bunch of java Moss in it, + a bunch of water wisteria. I put the moms in there and they do their thing. babies hide in the plants for the first few weeks then come out as they get bigger. Moms can have more than one lot of babies from one mating, so I'm leaving them in there for a few months...or till the fry tank gets too full ;) Gives them a break from the males constant chasing, too.

I have a similar wad o' Java Moss in my 40G with platys/corys/otos; I've noticed a few fry hangin out in there, too, but not in the numbers I get in the 10G with less large fish and a larger % of cover.

I've tried breeding traps & net breeders; the moms always seem freaked out, very stressed, and I end up putting them back in the tank anyway.

IMHO, the darker/more colored the fish, the harder the gravid spot is to see and you have to rely on shape.

Some fry could be stillborn...it happens. If the platy isn't very old, the # of babies will be smaller, too. I've yet to see seen the "30-40" that some claim...maybe 10-15, typically ~8 "appearing" in the Java Moss at a time.
 
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Shes a really light color, a washed out yellow actually so i'm pretty sure what i'm seeing is the gravid spot. My original plan was to put them in the quarantine tank but something happened and it sprung a leak (its a pretty old tank) so now they have to stay in the 20g. Thanks for all the info though, i'll definetly throw some of my fake plants in there at the bottom to provide more shelter and hiding spots, except now it will look all cluttered but oh well. I can try to take a picture, but anyone whos ever tried to take a picture of a platy knows how hard it can be, especially since they're always moving.
 
I like breeder traps personally, but you need to be able to identify a female about to give birth within a day or 2, or stress is an issue. To me being able to contain the fry in the same tank safely is much better then hoping they find cover fast enough...and if u plane on a controlled breeding separating young can help in deciding whos iideal for breeding and whos not.
 
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