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Date Posted: 11:35:23 11/20/01 Tue
Author: Rexie
Subject: Is it normal for a male platy to protect its fry?

We have a 20-G community tank with 8 fish. For the last few days, the male platy has kept to itself most of the time. We've been feeding the fish a li'l more often than usual so this solitary mail red wag platy also gets food in its own corner.
This morning to our surprise, I noticed a fry (just one) at the back corner of our 20-gallon tank. I was away for 2 minutes and when I came back to watch the tank, the fry was hiding somewhere. I still cannot find it.
Occasionally the male red wag platy comes out of its place to the top searching for food, takes lots of it and goes back to its corner. The male platy has thinned down a whole lot in the last few days (I'm sure it is a male!). The female swordtail that this male platy impregnated died 3 weeks ago. I have no idea who the mother is... because none of the current female fish (1 molly, 2 swordtails, 1 red platy) that we have right now are pregnant. All females are very active and act normal, unlike the pregnant swordtail that died 3 weeks ago. The other male fish in the tank is a young guppy. (There are two other hi-fin tetras that co-exist in this tank and both mind their own business).
The fry I found today obviously miraculously survived on its own so far (miraculously!!) bcos it is much bigger than a just-born fry. Almost big enuf that the other fish in the tank can't swallow it! The other fish in the tank are all 8-10 month-old fish. I guess it is possible that there are more fry hiding under the gravel. The male platy has been really secluded, hiding among plants / other "impossible to see places" in the tank and digging the gravel deep sometimes. Cud it be possible that it was protecting the fry? (since all the other female fish in the tank are carefree, active and normal, definitely not the mother) If anything, only the red female platy looks big enuf to be pregnant, but definitely not pregnant enough for us to see eyes inside its belly. Nor has it thinned suddenly. Any thoughts / advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
Background info: all the current female fish were added within the last 2-3 weeks. The male platy wudn't mate with any of the new female fish, even when the female fish went after the male! In the beginning, we kept thinking the male platy missed its partner the female swordtail that died so much that it wasn't ready to mate. Does all of this even make sense to anyone? I'm positive none of the current female fish released fry recently.

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