Any Platy owners out there?

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Andos99

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Apr 28, 2005
Messages
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Location
Phoenix, AZ
I've been cycling a 10 gal for about a month now with a few zebra danios and I'm about ready to toss them back in the 50 gal with their friends and I'm debating on what to put in this smaller tank. I think I've finally decided on some platys....about 6 or so. Anyone think this is a bad idea?
 
I've got platies, but my 10 gal. is definately overstocked with the other fish that are in there with them. I think if it were just the platies in there by themselves, they'd be fine though.
 
The males can be agressive towards their own species, esp other males. I've had males battling it out that would give cichlid lovers a run for their money. I would put plants in there to break it up. A pair of mollies might be nice, as the platys dont bother the mollies. A pair of fancy guppies are nice too. The gen rule of thumb is 1" of fish per gallon of water. So 6 would put you a bit over if they are 2" each.
 
I had 3 coral platys in my 10 and they were great- lots of personality. With them I had a couple ottos.
 
i have 2 female platies in my 5 gal and so far i havent had any problems with them...very active fish...and very hardy too...due to my own ignorance (and the lfs guy's ignorance as well) i cycled my tank with them with no problems...they are cute! :mrgreen:
 
Platies are very hardy and there is a lot of neat color variations out there. Mine are very active and eat like hogs. Its very easy to be over kind to them becuse they zoom to the front of the tank and want to be fed every time you pass by. Very liitle food hits the bottom of the tank with these guys. Six would probably be ok for a 10 gal., unless you want to add an algae eater or cory. JMO
 
I had 2 male mollies and 2 male platys and had a lot of aggression between all the fish. I had to separate them. I would definately make sure you have some females mixed in. However, beware, that they like to have lots of babies.
 
I forgot to add that if you get platies, be sure to have more females than males. The males can pursue the females to the point of exhaustion. I'd get two males and four females. I have four females and one male and it works out pretty good. I used to have two males but gave one away and now my tank is a lot calmer.
 
I've had my platys for a while now- at the worst my bigger male ( Gordo) will chase off the smaller male from his female- but I've never seen any harm done. They can be a little shy at first, but mine quickly became as active as my tetras. I just love'em- the funnest part is finding little babies you never even knew were there!! :lol:
 
1 male to 3 females or the males will battle it out and one will do nothing but hide. Also, the ratio keeps the male from pestering a single female litterally to death trying to mate with the same one all the time. Lots of places for them to hide is needed if you want more males. I got 7 females and 2 males and the males still battled it out. I would stick with one male and 3-5 females. After all, there will be many more in a short time anyway. 8O
 
I didn't think that platies were really like that...as far as having more females versus males. I've had my platies for quite awhile now, especially the four oldest. Maybe I just got lucky, but they sure weren't labeled as male/female. All the description at the store said was 'asst. platy.' So how the heck do I tell the males from the females? :?
 
The anal fin in the male and female is very different. In the female it fans out just like a normal fin would. In the male, it is round and kind of pointed and does not fan out at all. The anal fin is the one under and toward the back of the belly between the two side fins. It should be very easy to tell once you have seen a few.
 
platys

a good ratio of female to male would be 3-4 to 1, because the males will constantly chase the females around and stress them to death....not a pretty site....but platys are great and are very hardy fish
 
platies <3

hi all! i'm stacy.. i'm new to this site, but i'm not new to fishkeeping. i currently have a 10 gallon aquarium with 3 mickey mouse platies. (1 male and 2 female) there's also some fry in there, but i'm not sure how many, bc they are hiding. i think platies are a GREAT idea, however i wouldn't recommend 6. i'd recommend like 4 or 5 in a 10 gal at the most. i'd also recommend you only get one male, bc they are agressive towards each other. don't plan on putting anything else in with them though, bc they will have ALOT of fry.. which will overcrowd your tank in no time!
 
Sexing Platies

I also wanted to help out those of you who can't tell the difference between male and female platies. As someone previously stated it is their anal fin that makes it easy to tell. Also, the females tend to be bigger than the males and they're brighter than males at first. I've included pics (they're not mine, i googled them) to show you the difference.
 
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I have 2 males and 4 females in a 10 gallon along with 1 oto catfish. They seem to do fine.
 
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