my platys don't seem to want to get it on

[smooth_cannibal]

about 4 months ago I picked up 5 marigold platys at petsmart when they were on sale for a buck a piece. as far as I can tell I have 3 males and 2 females.

for whatever reason they have never bred. not a big deal but I find it strange. my work has been drying up so i am around a lot more than gone so i see them all the time.

i do see the males pursuing the females but never seen any babies.

 

[BBradbury]

Your Platys

about 4 months ago I picked up 5 marigold platys at petsmart when they were on sale for a buck a piece. as far as I can tell I have 3 males and 2 females.

for whatever reason they have never bred. not a big deal but I find it strange. my work has been drying up so i am around a lot more than gone so i see them all the time.

i do see the males pursuing the females but never seen any babies.

Hello smooth...

Livebearer females can hold their fry indefinitely, waiting for conditions to be just right for the survival of the fry. You may just need to prepare the right conditions for them. I've kept Livebearers for several years and they'll do best with a lot of floating plants like Common water weed (Anacharis), Pennywort and Hornwort just floated on the surface. The thicker the plants, the better. This provides privacy for the females and good hiding places for the fry.

Livebearers also like a trace of salt in their water. I dose a rounded teaspoon of standard aquarium salt in every 5 gallons of new, treated tap water. You need to change out half the tank water at least every two weeks, a bit more often if you have the fish in a somewhat smaller tank. Make the new water a bit warmer than what's already there.

Good food is important. I feed mostly frozen, a little freeze dried and a tiny bit of flaked.

Try some or all of these and you should see fry in a short time, provided you have both sexes in the tank.

B

 

[smooth_cannibal]

thanks for the tips. I did pick up some anacharis about 2 weeks ago. it was in a pretty bad shape and it was marked down. it is just now starting to bounce back and take off. I am planning on picking up another plant or two hopefuly this week. I'm not real disappointed they aren't producing any fry it is just weird to me at this point. last time i had live bearers I was probably 12 before I got into cichlids and more aggressive species. when I did have livebearers too I didn't have any problems getting fry to show up in the tank.

I am 99 percent sure I have male and female. 2 aren't as brightly colored and their anal fins aren't pointed like the others. the other three males do follow them around seemingly putting the moves on the females.

 

[Mogurako]

They don't need the salt per-say, it's the fact they do better with harder water. The salt adds trace minerals which raised the TDS "Total dissolved Solids". Adding crushed coral, crushed oyster shells or cuttle will help this.

50% water change every two weeks is not sufficient IME/O. I do a minimum of 50% 1-2 times a week to keep the water pristine, I find when I don't my fry drops tend to taper off.

Diet is also equally important, I feed NLS small fish formula, raw organic veggies crisps and occasional blood worms.

 

[smooth_cannibal]

i'll try upping the water changes. I added some wisteria to dense up the plants in the tank when I switched out the gravel for floramax earlier.

I don't really think I have a hard water problem. my water is pretty hard. I don't know the hardness but I've always had a seemingly excessive mineral buildup on the glass.

their diet is mostly tetra flakes and I crush up some hikari pellets a couple times a week that is left from my cichlids that died last summer.

 

[Mogurako]

Get those poor little buggers some NLS and frozen blood worms.

 

[smooth_cannibal]

I'm almost out of the flakes and was planning on stepping up to a better brand of food.