tank

I have an aquarium of 24" length and 12" wide and height, how many gallons is in the tank cause i am new to this hobby.

Welcome to the Forum! And it sounds like a welcome to the hobby is in order! I believe that the tank you're describing is a 10 gallon.

Please feel free to browse the forum, and ask as many questions as you like!

If this is indeed your first tank, please read through the blog about the nitrogen cycle. It'll allow you to make LESS mistakes than what we did in setting up our first aquariums...

What are you planning on putting in it?

Good Luck with your tank!

I have 5 platys and 3 mollies. my problem is that i have 2 baby mollies in a seperate tank but they are not growing i don't know why. My 3 female platys are pregnant too. i just have bought two today.

What are you feeding the baby mollies?

I bought flake food for juvenile fish . they were in a net but now i put them with the big fish because they have more than one month old i don't know if they will survive or not but they are not getting any bigger.

Hmmm, have you seen them actually eating the food. The flakes may be too big for tiny baby fish mouths. I suggest going to the pet store and getting some frozen baby brine shrimp(not adult). If you cannot do that, then try mashing up the flakes into tiny powder with a mortar and pestle. I really hope this helps. It can be very frustrating when babies don't grow.

yes i have seen them eating when i feed them now i have left only two and i released them from the net with the adult fish but i don't want to have the same problem cause i have two platys that are very pregnant. when do you know when they are going to have their babies cause they seem to burst but still nothing happend. I am trying to change water every two weeks cause people told me that it would be that the problem of the baby fish don't grow.

Does the aquarium have any floating plants? They are very good hiding places for little fish, and they help keep the water clean. If the fish are getting sick, the first place to look is water quality. The water should measure zero ammonia and nitrite as well as the correct temperature. Almost everyone who is new to the hobby tends to over feed the fish, and over feeding produces ammonia and nitrite. You may need to do a partial water change every day for a few days.

yes i have fish and decorations but they are plastic not alive plants.

how often is fine to feed the fish i feed them once a day usually in the morning is it good?

You can get quite a few differing opinions on that subject. The routine I've used for years is a quality flake food in the morning and frozen brine shrimp in the evening. Now and then they get flake food supplemented with vitamins or garlic, and I occasionally replace the frozen brine shrimp with blood worms, daphnia or another frozen treat. Try to feed no more than the fish will eat in a couple of minutes, and thaw out the frozen food before feeding.

I have 2 platys pregnant when do you know when the are giving birthsince one of them seem to burst.?

The gestation period is around a month, and the "birthing" sequence is very fast. Live bearing fish don't nourish their fry through a placenta. Instead, the fry use their egg yolk to grow and are then expelled when they are free swimming. Some that are expelled prematurely will have a visible yolk sac.

A female Platy can get pretty large before she expels fry. However, it's a good idea make sure the fat tummy is not caused by a disease or parasite. Look at her from directly above, and make sure her scales do NOT protrude like a pine cone.

welcome! I'm not totaly sure but I think it's a tengallon

My 10 gallon tank measures 20 by 10 by 12 inches tall. If you calculate internal volume, you may find that aquariums are sold by the amount of water they displace, which is larger than the amount of water they will hold.

Hello johnarthur i just have baby platy fry today i managed to save about 20 of them because two mothers gave birth today. They are very small do you think they can eat ground flakes for juvenile fish they are in a net.

I usually feed them a little bit of flake food ground up between my thumb and a finger. They are also large enough to eat baby, brine shrimp either frozen or live. Be sure to thaw the frozen food, and try not to over feed. Not everybody likes live plants because they usually bring in snails. Some of us, however, believe the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. A big wad of hornwort floating in your aquarium would give the babies a hiding place and help control ammonia levels.

And, congratulations.

they don,t have any plants cause i put them in a net to protect them from the adult fish. what is the growth of them cause i doesn't have any luck with fry so far cause i had mollies and didn't seem to grow and all died i don't want to happen like that with these platys.

The fry can be fed three times a day, and they will grow fast if one of those feedings is baby brine shrimp. It's also important to give them a healthy environment by doing regular, partial water changes. You may want to look it up on Google, but I think my red wag platies mature in about six months. When they fail to thrive, the problem can usually be traced back to water quality.

should fry be fed like First Bites fry food until they're fully grown?

First Bites is for really small fry like newly hatched angelfish or other egg layers. Live bearing fry are usually not very fussy. My 20 gallon red wag tank has lots of fry, and they usually get fed the same thing that adults eat. Live plants house very small critters that fry eat.

I went to the fish shop and he gave blood worms for my fish but when they thawed was big i had to cut them in small pieces do you think they are good for my baby platys?

Probably they are too big for fry, but most adult fish like them. Some people don't feed blood worms, because they think the worms may carry parasites. It seems very unlikely. Blood worms do, however, smell a lot worse than frozen brine shrimp. Frozen baby brine shrimp are a very popular fish food, and it seems like most aquarium shops would have them or be willing to order some. Adult frozen brine shrimp can be fed to adult fish, and sometimes the fry will eat chunks of them. As an alternative to the frozen shrimp, you can setup various types of hatcheries, including one that works inside the aquarium. That said, the condition of the aquarium water is much more important than the food you give to the fish.

Please keep us posted.

Congrats on the platy fry!

I feed thawed Frozen baby brine shrimp. The theory, and most likely the truth is that the fry will eat more of the live bbs but I am not a fan of the hatcheries... They wear me out. So I feed frozen.

Good Luck to you!