My 55 gallon is currently in the begining stages of cycle. 1 week in. I normaly cycle fishless but decided to cycle with 4 twinbar platys this time. Apperently one of the females was pregnant when I bought them, not surprising. What does shock me is that she actually gave birth in a cycling tank and that at least 3 of them are alive.

I have never had fry before, so i'm not sure what I need to do to help them along. The fact that the tank is currently cycling complicates things even further.

My normal cycle routine with fish is this; Use hardy fish. maintain ammonia levels around 5 to 6 PPM, doing water changes when levels get higher than 6.5 or when the fish are showing definate signs of distress. The water can cloud up if it wants, it'll clear up. when nitrites start to spike, do water changes to keep levels below 2 PPM or when fish show signs of distress. When nitrites decline and nitrates rise, add a fish or two and keep an eye on levels till cycle completes.

So far the water has clouded up and cleared quite a bit, the fish were stressed the second day but have been quite lively since then. I have done 2 30% water changes, the second one was last night. Current levels are 6 PPM ammonia, and .25 PPM nitrite. I plan to do a 10 gallon water change this evening.

So what suggestions can I get to keep the fry alive and still be able to cycle the tank in a timely manner?

Honestly? Those high ammonia readings are going to not only kill the fry but the adults as well. It may not. Only thing you could do is increase water changes to bring down the ammonia, however this may stall your cycle.

__________________
"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

Livebearer Fry are usually pretty tough. Make sure you have lots of plants (floating ones if possible), lots of aeriation, lots of filtration and light feeding. I'll bet your fry survive. The reason they were born was the stress on their mother caused by moving her.

Hello dante...

If you're closely monitoring the ammonia and nitrites and doing the necessary water changes when your tests show a trace of these pollutants, your fish will be fine. It's been my experience with "Livebearers", with the exception of Mollies, they're extremely hardy and tolerant of small mistakes in tank management.

Platys are a good choice for cycling along with Zebra Danios if you like fish other than Livebearers.

I would recommend adding some fast growing stem plants. I think Water sprite, Water wisteria and Pennywort are some of the best nitrate users.

Just a couple of thoughts.

B

__________________
Low Tech Water Building Keeper

I do nothing special in my planted live bearer tanks. The fish population just expands to some more or less stable level then remains at that level for years.

But still

just my .02

__________________
fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

precisely what I do NOT want to do.


I have a few new plants in there. Pennywort, cobomba, spiral val, and a sword, (I believe its brazilian) as far as aeration goes I have a pump, but it dosent seem to have a lot of volume, possibly buying another one this weekend, (if finances allow). I fave lots of filtration, I like to have enough filters to turn my tank over 10 time per hour. I am currently running a penguin 330, 170, and 125. needles to say the back of the tank is pretty full. light feeding is a must during a cycle anyway. I give a small bit each time and pay attention to make sure it all gets eaten.

So you are saying there is no real need to do anything differently? Well thats easy enough.
After this input and observing the tank the last couple days, I guess my only concern now is that they dont get eaten.

I agree with Summer, those readings are way high, I can't believe anything survived. I just finished cycling a 15 gallon tank in 17 days, but did use live bacteria and that is all, except for a LOT of water changes. My readings were all under 1PPM like .50 and less even. It has been perfect now for about a week. I just tested all parameters last night and 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 04 nitrate. It is my belief you don't need to spike ammonia that hight to get your balance in order. I had 2 platys and a syndontis feather fin cat in there during the cycle.

This is good info, you can bring ammonia down under 1ppm and still get a cycle. Water changes! Remember friendly bacteria is not in the water so don't worry about throwing out the good!