Thread: What is the gestational time frame of pregnant platy?

I've had my female platy for about a week now and she has become pregnant with the fellow male. How long will she be pregnant?

Around 60 days

The gestation period is about one month.

hi! congrats on the upcoming fry! platys are live bearers, ( Im sure you knew that) what you need to look for is a dark spot near their anal fin. this is called a gravid spot. when it is time for her to drop fry, ( which is about 4 weeks) it will get very dark and more pronounced. look for your female near the heater or hiding in the plants. this is a sign she will drop soon! If you do not have a lot of plant cover and other things in your tank for the fry, I suggest placing her in her own tank or a net breeder. I highly suggest buying some floating plants and such instead of buying a net breeder, though, because the net can stress the fish out and she will either abort the fry or delay the birth.
good luck, hope this helps!

depends, i read somewhere that some fish can hold the males sperm, so they can choose when to have babys. Im not sure if platys can do this but i think they can.

The most common of the livebearing fish can drop a new group of fry every four to eight weeks depending on diet, temperature, and other conditions. When the female is ready to deliver, the gravid spot (a triangular-shaped area just above and behind the anal fin that turns darker as the delivery date approaches) will be well developed. Now there are exceptions to the gravid spot rule, X. "nezzy" being one of them...the males can show what will resemble a gravid spot. Many livebearers (most of the light bodied swordtails for example...and many of the goodeids) will show a darkened area whether they are holding fry or not.

We like to keep track of when a female last dropped her fry. If we are dealing with a species that will be dropping again in about a month, we remove the female to a maternity tank about a week before she is scheduled to drop again. Many livebearing fish are canabalistic and if your main tank is a community tank you will find that most fish consider fry a very tasty snack. We have found that the easiest and maybe the best drop tank is a 5 gallon or a 10 gallon tank with lots of cover for the female to feel comfortable and for the fry to hide in when they are dropped. We like to use Java Moss for the cover, but many fine leafed plants will work. At times we use yarn mops just as we would for Killifish. We don't like to use "breeding nets" or "breeding traps" as we have found that they are too small for most of our fish and seem to stress the fish. Besides, once the fry are dropped in the 5 or 10 gallon drop tank and the female removed, the fry can simply be kept in the drop tank for a week or two, giving them an excellent start.

We have found that most drops are in the early morning hours and may take several hours. We remove the female to a holding tank as soon as the birthing is complete. If you leave her in the tank, most females will try to eat the fry...and if you put her into the tank with the males they will immediately try to breed. We're not sure if the female needs a break or a rest, but the constant attention of the males just seems to be well...too much. We give the female several days to rest and eat without being harrassed.