Infertile Platy?

[sbsociety]

Weird thing's been goin on with one of my Mickey Mouse Platies... I've had this platy for about a month. She's been the same size since I bought her and I notice the eggs aren't getting darker or getting eyes, so I came to the conclusion that the eggs are not fertile. My question is, how common is this with platies? Cause it seems my other MM Platy is also getting bigger, but not darker. I've seen this one drop clear balls which I concluded are either unfertilized or infertile... Is this common? See the pic, she's been this same size for a month.

Oh, sorry for the poor quality. Quality decreases with zoom and I had to zoom all the way cause she won't come out from behind a rock in my 80G.

[mlefev]

Mine's exactly at the same stage. I've had her for close to a month, I can see if I can get her in the right light that there's stuff in there, but she hasn't laid any. I know they're livebearers, but I expected to have fry everywhere by now.

[sbsociety]

Ya. I checked her a million times. Eggs are clear as heck inside her. And it's been like that for a month... One day she dropped a few and I noticed they were clear, nothing forming, this was a week ago. She's been this size for a month with no fry forming. I'm sure the eggs aren't fertile... I'm just wondering why she won't release the eggs? I doubt a male can fertilize them now can they?

[mlefev]

I really don't know. I've heard of fish getting egg-bound, but I don't know if this applies to platies. I haven't noticed anything in my tank that looks like it could have come from her, and being that they're livebearers I was sure she'd be carrying babies at this point.

When I bought her from the fish store, she didn't even look pregnant, now she looks almost identical to yours just a tiny bit smaller. It's really strange. I was reading a post on another board from a girl who said hers had looked that way for almost a year now, so I'm not sure if they just hang on to the eggs or if it means something's actually wrong.

[sbsociety]

A year?!? That would really suck for the fish. I feel kind of bad for her because she's so big that she just sits on the bottom all day. She literally just sits on her belly all day and barely moves. The only reason she'll move is to sometimes eat and if she gets startled. It's just the funniest thing though, cause her belly is so big that she sits like a half inch off the bottom, with just her belly touching the gravel...

OK, so it is possible that she can just be like this pretty much forever? She won't even drop the eggs? I've concluded she'll probably be infertile forever.

[doggydad38]

She may not have been bred before you got her. It sometimes happens that a female will not accept the advances of a male and will not get pregnant. It doesn't happen very often, but it does happen.
Tony

[sbsociety]

Weird. Thanks doggy. So shouldn't she at least drop the unfertilized eggs by now? They've been full grown inside her for over a month...

[Vivid-Dawn]

My dalmatian Molly seems to have about the same problem. I've had her since the middle of March, and nothin'! I heard livebearers are "finned rabbits", and drop fry about every 4-6 weeks. Well, it's been almost 9...she hasn't even gotten a big belly!
I'm figuring either her, or the male, is infertile. Maybe him, since my other Molly never had fry either...but I only had her for 2 months.

Not that I mind, my guppies are certainly making up for it! Since the 25th of March, I've had 3 batches of half a dozen fry (already sold one set to the pet store).

[Lexus]

My dwarf/balloon platys are infertile sadly I really wanted babies...

[sbsociety]

Originally Posted by Vivid-Dawn

My dalmatian Molly seems to have about the same problem. I've had her since the middle of March, and nothin'! I heard livebearers are "finned rabbits", and drop fry about every 4-6 weeks. Well, it's been almost 9...she hasn't even gotten a big belly!
I'm figuring either her, or the male, is infertile. Maybe him, since my other Molly never had fry either...but I only had her for 2 months.

Not that I mind, my guppies are certainly making up for it! Since the 25th of March, I've had 3 batches of half a dozen fry (already sold one set to the pet store).

Dawn, when they don't get the belly, it's a different problem. They're probably just not compatible. Some fish just will not pair up no matter how much you want them to. If she's not getting prego, it's likely that the male isn't trying. She has no belly, so there's no conception at all. Try adding another female, he may get her pregnant. Either that or the one you have now is too quick for the male, maybe she's outswimming him. lol. Oh and congrats on the the fry.

As for my platy, it's a little different. She is full of eggs, and I mean FULL... She has been huge for over a month and won't release the eggs. It's not that she won't get prego, it's the the eggs she's holding aren't dropping at all. Which is weird since if they're infertile, I would figure she should at least release 'em right?

Lexus, I'm sorry. Don't ya hate it. When I got this platy I was set on her having fry but I guess as much cross breeding has been going on, there are lots of infertile fish out there...

[mlefev]

Yeah, mine has a huge belly but is still up and swimming around like nothing's wrong. I would say the stomach had tripled in size since I got her though, and I have no idea what's going on. I'd get a male, but the store doesn't have any right now, and I don't want to keep adding fish to my tank since I've had ammonia problems, etc. to begin with. I guess that after I finish moving she's still like that I'll get her a male to hang out with and see if I can get her back down to normal size. It has to be miserable.

[Ownager2004]

I would just say be patient and you'll get fry. When i had platys some seemed to stay swelled up longer than others. One of them looked like it was about to burst for 2 weeks before it finally dropped fry. Although, I did have a female red wag, with a deformed dorsal fin, that I nicknamed retardo fin. I think she was infertile. She never seemed to get pregnant, but she was my favorite one

Edit: Oh and sbsociety ive read somewhere that when livebearer females hover near the bottom, avoid other fish, and become inactive its a sign that they are about to give birth...

[sbsociety]

Originally Posted by Ownager2004

I would just say be patient and you'll get fry. When i had platys some seemed to stay swelled up longer than others. One of them looked like it was about to burst for 2 weeks before it finally dropped fry. Although, I did have a female red wag, with a deformed dorsal fin, that I nicknamed retardo fin. I think she was infertile. She never seemed to get pregnant, but she was my favorite one

Edit: Oh and sbsociety ive read somewhere that when livebearer females hover near the bottom, avoid other fish, and become inactive its a sign that they are about to give birth...

Well, the thing is, she's been this fat for 6 weeks... ( I said one month in the original post, but it's actually been about a month and a half) that's not including the time it took her to get this fat. She was this fat 6 weeks ago when I bought her. Her eggs are absolutely clear. No fry formation what so ever... (She dropped a couple eggs a week ago) I know a lot about livebearers, just not about infertility. I breed all livebearers, and she is the first one to ever come across this problem. I am 100% sure the eggs aren't fertilized or are infertile.

What I'm wondering is why she won't drop the eggs...? Again, I'm 100% sure there's no fry in her... just infertile eggs...

[doggydad38]

If the "eggs" haven't been fertilized then there is nothing to drop. They aren't like Cory cat females that will lay even without a male to stimulate breeding. When she finally reaches the age where she can no longer prduce fry, she will absorb them.
Tony

[sbsociety]

So are they still "fertilizable"? lol. (Sorry, only word I can think of...) Cause from what I thought, I thought if the eggs didn't get fertilized, she'd drop them and start over.

So basically, she'll be this large until a male fertilizes the eggs? Cause I'm just wondering because my unfertilized (non pregnant) females are all regular size. And she is the size of a ready to drop female. The only dif is she's full of eggs, and the others aren't...

I guess my question is now, will she have these eggs inside her full size until a male fertilizes them. And if there is no male around, will she just be this large forever? (or like you said, until she can no longer produce fry) Cause it's just weird that she's humungous, and my other non pregnant livebearers are regular size.

[mlefev]

Geesh...I'll end up having to get a male and raise fry if that's the case. If she gets too much bigger it's going to be like aliens...they'll just explode out of her.

[sbsociety]

I do have males. Lots of them.... They for some reason don't like her... lol. Maybe she's a mean old hag and they just wanna stay away from her. haha. She was in my breeder tank for a while. I just moved her to my 80 last week cause I was making way for other breeders. Now she's with a male and female red wag.

[mlefev]

Well my platy is getting fatter, but still no idea what's up with her. Guess I really will buy a male when I move. This is getting rediculous.

[ALFA WOLF]

zMaybe it is what u feed her?

[mlefev]

I thought so at first, but I'm using fish flakes and bloodworms...only feed 1x per day.