# New! Fish had babies, not sure how to care for them!



## baronneo (Apr 21, 2010)

Hello everyone, I'm new here. My husband and I just started a small aquarium with 3 golden platy fish. 1 day after we brought them home, we discovered 4 baby fish. We seperated them from the adults into a bowl and after doing some reading, I decided to go ahead and try to raise them. My only question is what to feed them! I did some research and found out that they do well with brine shrimp. I went to Petsmart and all they had was freeze dried brine shrimp. I figured that was better than nothing. After getting it home, I went to feed them. The Petsmart salesman told me that I should hydrate the pellets before giving it to the fry and that it would be fine for them to eat. I did just that but it doesn't seem to want to break up very much. I used a spoon before giving it to them to try to break it up more, but it just clung together in small pieces. Surely the small pieces are still too large for the tiny fry to eat, right? Or will they be okay taking nibbles off it? I spent enough money already getting them set up in their own tank, I hate to have to go buy more food for them and I also hate to serve them something they can't eat. What would you lovely experts recommend? Thanks so much for helping out a newbie, I appreaciate it!


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## baronneo (Apr 21, 2010)

Over 60 views and no one has any suggestions? *c/p*


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## A Fish Guy (Apr 17, 2010)

So sad 

You want to share and no one seems to care !

Well ,

I have Platys , Guppys Swords,etc ,etc

Personally ......If you have something the babies can hide in that floats ...line plants or fake grass or whatever ... Just let them stay !!!

Also, Tetra Min powdered between your fingers works to get a fine food for the young.

Just screen your filter intake Or they will get sucked up!

Good Luck !

Roger *w2


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

*I keep only Platies and I know a lot about them. Hence my username, avatar, and signature . 

What I did was... I used a breeding net in the main tank and catch the babies and put them in there until they are big enough to be tranfered to the main tank. Reaons why I did this is because I didnt want to re-cycle another tank along with buying another filter and heater and I knew the water quality was good in the main's so I figured the breeding net was the most effective (AND IT WAS). I used to feed them baby brine shrimp (it is in the frozen section of Petsmart, you might have looked in the wrong place) but sometimes they dont eat it plus it wasnt cheap. Now... I only feed them crushed flakes. Its the same flakes I feed the adults with but I grind it between my fingers into a very fine powder and drop it in. Very very effective.

I discontinued the breeding net because it was such a hassel to clean the algae of it. So I just let all the babies go in the main tank. My adults did not eat them. Im sure they used to at first because my very first set of frys... I had 20+ and ended up with only 10 left which was when I started the breeding net. I think they are used to being around the junior platies and got along with them and I introduced smaller and smaller platies to the main tank over time and they mustve gotten used to them. I have a very densely planted tank so it is very safe for the fry. I have over 50 baby/junior platys swimming around my tank atm.

If you have any questions let me know.*


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