Pregnant platy died--did I do something wrong?

[yng...@aol.com]

Had two female Micky Mouse platies and one red coral male platy for a
couple months now. Both the females have appeared to be pregnant for a
while, and the larger of the two I just found dead. These are our
first platies so I am new to this but for at least the past week or
two she's been "squared up" and I could see the dark spots (eyes) of
the fry, but she never gave birth. Should I just assume this was a
problem with birthing? She had gotten so big she looked about to burst
but I understand that's how they should look before they have fry.

The tank is a 29 gallon community tank so I didn't expect the fry to
live long anyway, but I am just wondering what happened to her. She
never appeared ill and was active and eating like a little pig (same
as the other two platies). I did recently move my male betta into the
tank but he and the platies ignore each other so I don't think he had
anything to do with it. There is nothing else in the tank that would
have gone after her either (hatchetfish, otos, mystery snail, two
small BN plecos, seven glowlight tetras).

-yngver

[NetMax]

Insufficient information, but giving birth is a vulnerable time more
prone to complications.

NetMax

[Tynk]

Live bearers can do some pretty amazing things when it comes to having
to fry.
Aside from delivering live fry, holding onto sperm from one mating and
having a few litters from the stored sperm, and even pausing delivery.
However, with the good comes some bad too.
They can drop an entire batch when they want - no matter how developed
the fry are.
They can also stop delivery altogether. This will kill both her and
they fry if she refuses to give birth.
The reason is usually stress or fright. However, sometimes there
doesn't seem to be any stress for the fish and they just refuse to
drop the fry.
Platies in general can freak out at the oddest things.
My daughter had some that would flip out when you first came to the
tank, then they would realize it's us and be begging for food.
I had an article about them really needing to be kept in
schools.....and they freak out or hide much less.
It was absolutely true in her tank. We had 3 Corals (a dwarf platy),
added 3 more and no more flipping out.
We never saw fry in that tank because of the resident Betta.
You mentioned a recent addition of a male betta. Was he yours that you
just added to this tank, or was he new?
Was he quarantined first?
If not, keep a close eye on the tank.

[yng...@aol.com]

Thanks, Tynk. Yes, the betta we moved back into the 29 gallon (with
the three platies and assorted other fish) is the one that was biting
his tail when he had a five gallon tank to himself. We've had him
about five months. Other than the tail biting, there's nothing wrong
with him and his tail is growing back now that he has other things to
occupy his attention. The platies were a bit too curious about him
when he first came back into the tank but he held his own and that was
that--after that they ignored each other. Actually he pretty much
ignores all the other fish in the tank, except when he wants to see
what the plecos are eating.

I suppose it's possible she was about to give birth when I put the
betta back in and was worried enough about him that she retained the
fry, but she never seemed frightened or stressed by his presence. The
other platies, a female Mickey Mouse who is also very pregnant, and a
male red coral, pay no attention to the betta either. Other than our
betta, there haven't been any changes in the tank for a long while,
except a new pot of dwarf hair grass and I removed a gold mystery
snail that the platies were annoying by picking at him.

The three platies (now two) that I have don't seem to be afraid of
anything or freak out about anything either. They are more aggressive
about food than the other fish in the tank and never hide, so I don't
think having just 2-3 is bothering them. I don't have room for a
school of them and anyway, seeing their behavior compared to the more
sedate glowlight tetras, BN plecos and hatchetfish, I don't think we
want any more of them or if we did, they would go in a different tank
with the guppies.
-yngver

[Tynk]

Good to hear your platties don't freak out.
The ones I've had in the past always did it (aside from the dwarf ones
after we got their numbers up). I'd feel so badly for them just
walking past the darn tank, hehe.

[yng...@aol.com]

The platies we have seem pretty bold, really. Like guppies.

The other female gave birth day before yesterday. She was obviously
not pregnant anymore and the male is now chasing her again, so
although I haven't seen any fry, it seems whatever was wrong was just
a problem for the female that died. I am sure whatever fry there might
have been went down the gullets of the other fish in the tank. The
morning after the female gave birth, she was hiding a lot in the
foliage, but today she is back to normal.
-yngver

[Tynk]

On Nov 13, 11:41 pm, "yng...@aol.com" <yng...@aol.com> wrote:

>
> The platies we have seem pretty bold, really. Like guppies.
>
> The other female gave birth day before yesterday. She was obviously
> not pregnant anymore and the male is now chasing her again, so
> although I haven't seen any fry, it seems whatever was wrong was just
> a problem for the female that died. I am sure whatever fry there might
> have been went down the gullets of the other fish in the tank. The
> morning after the female gave birth, she was hiding a lot in the
> foliage, but today she is back to normal.
> -yngver

With a betta in that tank, you'll be lucky to see any fry.
They're very, very good at stalking.
Other fish are more obvious and fry can dart away.
Not so much with a skilled hunter in the tank.