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How can I get my mickey mouse platy to start birthing the young again? She had given birth to three - I wanna say - preemies because an egg was laying at the bottom of our breeder tank that I had her in she at two of the babies I was able to save the third baby and that baby is doing well.

I moved the mother back into the main tank and have the one baby in the breeder box. The babies where born on August 18th 2016 and it's now four days latter. The mother is still swimming and thriving, but still looks pregnant. She eats and is pooping really well and she is looking square in the normal pregnancy way too. She is showing signs of trying to go back into labor by hiding slow swimming movements too. Any advise on what to do?

I have the temp set between 78°F (25,5°C) and 80°F (26,5°C). I also have moved the live plants into the main tank and bought a separator to have the platy on the one side of the main tank and the Molly and cat fish on the other side. Our molly is not pregnant. This is I believe the platy's first set of baby fry. I have a ten gallon tank.

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  • Some of your sentences, like "She had given birth to three - I wanna say - preemies because an egg was laying at the bottom of our breeder tank that I had her in she at two of the babies I was able to save the third baby and that baby is doing well." don't make sense. Please correct them.
    – Kalle Richter
    Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 22:27

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There's a chance she had much more before you caught the three and they were eaten. Platies can also wait to have there babies if they are stressed or sense danger or simply due to exhaustion. Turning lights out may help - a higher percentage of live bearers give birth "at night" maybe it feels safer , but separating her from her comfortable environment may do more harm than good, she could abort the babies under stress.

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Platy fish are Live bearers, meaning that they give birth directly to young ones. >> Platy fish Wikipedia

In order for you to have more Platy babies, you will need to have one male. Whether a male is present in your larger tank, is not clear from the info you provided. Male to female ratio should be either 2F : 1M or 3F : 1M, this is only to prevent lesser number of females being harassed by males.

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  • There are no males in our tank I also read that they hold sperm which in return only takes one time of being pregnant and they can to continue to give live birth every 28days. It also said that after the very first time of being pregnant and being away from a male they would release that sperm they hold and get pregnant again. We have the platy and the dalmation molly and a spotted catfish I did spesify that above those where the only fish in our tank we where going to add more but thats when we saw her getting bigger in they belly.
    – Amanda
    Commented Aug 24, 2016 at 14:33
  • So I naught a breader holder to put her into then she gave birth to three baby fry at the first two and I saved the third but had stopped giving birth I am trying to get her to go back into labor but I believe its to late now she would end up giving birth to some dead fry when the next set of fry come. Since she holds sperm I read that all live bearers do and if they are away from a male for so long they will release that sperm to inprgnant them selves and it only takes one time after being with a male.
    – Amanda
    Commented Aug 24, 2016 at 14:37

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