Fishkeepers of G@G, how do you tell when your livebearing fish is about to give birth?

[xJeremyx]

I have a couple of pregnant platies, so I'm expecting a whole flock of babies in 1-2 weeks! They are in my breeding tank as of now. Its well-planted with loads of hiding places (there's driftwood in there, loads of pellia moss, and a bunch of plants, since this is also a chilli rasbora tank).

I know there are a few signs that the birth is about to happen, eg. hiding in safer spots, not eating, a box-ish abdomen, etc.

How do you tell if your fish are about to flood your tank with babies?

[jennifer_bloom]

What my mom used to do is she would take a crocheting plastic grid for knitting colours and sew a small square shaped fish cage out of it to house the babies in the same tank and put the top of the cage above water and the rest below water to block other fish from entering, so they do not get eaten. Neither the mother, nor the father will eat the fish when they first come out, but after 2-6 hours, they will forget they gave birth to those fish and will eat their own children if you do not separate them, and the other fish will also eat them, since they have no attachment to the kids.

[xJeremyx]

Yeah I've seen the cannibalism happen before, in my dad's tank. I turned my chilli rasbora tank (was previously a community tank) into a breeding tank, since I know chilli rasboras won't eat the babies. Back when I had a few species in the breeding tank (used to be a community tank), I still had a couple babies popping out and they actually made it. So I'm pretty sure that tank set-up is ideal for birthing, with enough hiding spots for the little ones.

[Guy13]

No idea but you can search that on google easily.