Sunday, August 2, 2009

Are my Plattys in danger of inbreeding?

I had a very lovely pair (male and female) of Plattys and just recently the male died. The famale had given birth to one set of babies a couple months ago, and only after the male died, last week, I found 2 more newborns. While she's still pregnant, I'm worrid that future offspring might be the result of her babies doing the daddy-ing. Is that possible? I WILL get another male soon, but in the mean time, do I risk having her babies impregnate her, or do they not do that? What happens if they do? I'm not separating them, as this is all taking place in a 30 gallon tank, and have never needed to remove the fry in the past. (I've been keeping plattys for years.) Will her children go after her, or do they know better? Does it even matter in fish??
Answers:
Yes her babies will try to mate with her, no it doesn't matter. However if any of the fry are 'damaged' (bent spines, missing fins) you may want to seperate them so they don't pass on their genes.

The babies will also mate amongst themselves, so if that concernes you you may want to seperate the males from the females.
It really doesn't matter in fish, but by all means, introduce a new male into the tank.
Here's info on the species.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/species/db.

Doesn't sound like you have a lot of cause for concern, but I would try to mix things up a bit with different males so your gene pool is a little more diverse.
In simple terms there is nothing to worry about. Even if they did mate the chances of any issues are rare and never documented to my knowledge and I have been keeping fish for over 30 years and never seen any issues over the years. Keep up the great work if they are breeding your tank is doing great no worries.
yes they will go after her who care if fish are retarded

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