platys, male hi-fin + female regular...

[ValRasbora]

ok so a few days ago I got a male hi-fin platy to breed to my regular platy girls (2x red wag 1x variatus). So will the fry turn out hi-fin, or only some, or none at all? Thanks I was just curious!

[Newman]

if your females are already pregnant from the store, the its doubtful that male will contribute his genes for a while. until the females need to breed again that is once they run out of stored sperm...the male can breed with them successfully again. you might not see any hi fins, but there should be a few. not all though.

[beckyd]

What Newman says is true. They are likely pregnant already. However, I read somewhere in the past that if you want to breed a particular pair of livebearers that you need the desired pair to be together the first 24 hrs after the female delivers a brood. Apparently, the females can be receptive at this time to prioritizing the sperm of a new beau. So, if they are together now, you'll be taking advantage of this automatically.

As far as the amount of hifins. Well, this depends on how fancy your male is. Some of the really extreme hifin males are incapable of mating. My lyretail sword males have this issue. In which case, you need hifin females and regular males. This will likely result in about a 50/50 hifin/regular fry. However, if you got your male from a petstore and not a hifin specialty breeder, its likely his gonopodium is functional. I just bought one that I am pretty sure is capable of breeding. He is nowhere as fancy finned as I have seen from some breeders that specify that they sell you normal finned males for breeding purposes.

[ValRasbora]

I don't think they are pregnant. No gravid spots and I've had them for like 6+ months (no males present). Only 1 fry which I highly suspect to be swordtail. Lost little houdini though

His gonopodium seems normal. I've only had him like 3 days and he dosen't seem very interested in my girls, but that's OK because I find platys are always like that the first few days. He should perk up soon and be like, "wheee these girls are mine!" LOL
anyways can't wait to see some fry!
Would you be able to see a gravid spot on red wags? I can on the variatus, she was gravid once (never saw any fry... hope the fish enjoyed their snack!).

[beckyd]

6 mos? OK, I think its safe to say that the girls are indeed his for the having! I don't have any red platies, but I can vaguely see the gravid spot on my red sword. So, I can't really say. Let us know.

[ValRasbora]

yeah 6 months.
Anyways he seemed to have perked up today so... fry is in the future
hoping for hi-fins but if no, I'll be happy with plain ol' platies.

[Newman]

if you get no hi-fins, then breed the resulting fry back to the hi-fin parents to get actual hi-fin fry.

[ValRasbora]

thanks. That makes sense, as they would have hi-fin genes...

[ValRasbora]

I think my variatus is pregnant ))