First time (sunburst wag platys) need help :)

[Aliray]

Hi Gio ,when I feed blood worms I use that for their meal in stead of the flakes or pellets o r whatever you are using . If you unthaw a few to many just cover it, put it and put it in the fridge and feed them the next meal. Just use in 24 hours then discard any that you haven't used. As for plants, go with low light plants that don't need a lot of extra care. Java fern, java moss, anubias, marimo moss balls, some easy floating plants, like riccia, hornwort, water spangles, annacharis. The floating plants give the fry somewhere to hide from other hungry fish like mom and dad. The live plants also help to convert the waste in the water which they use for fertilizer to grow and thereby help to keep the water cleaner. Just take it slow with the fish but plants you can add any time. Alison

 

[Gio]

Oh okay.. I'll get rid of the flakes then. About to head over to grab some blood worms. Thank you for he plant recommendations! I'll look for those too. I'm okay with 2 little platys for now.


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[Aliray]

Gio don't get rid of the flakes. that is what I use for their staple diet most of the time with a bloodworm meal or baby brine shrimp meal two or three times a week . They get fed 2 times a day so may have flakes for breakfast on one day then shrimp or worms for supper, then back to flakes. By the way the worms and shrimp look like little wrapped frozen bullion cubes.

 

[Gio]

Ahhh got it. Makes sense. Flakes for breakfast then for supper some worms the flakes again at night or no?


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[guppygourami]

Hi Alison, Gio! I came across this post and I was just wondering if you may be able to share your knowledge with me too, as I have red wag platies as well with mollies, gouramis, and other fish. I just got two males today along with two female black mollies. If you don't mind spending a bit of time answering my questions then that would be greatly appreciated

1. Can the mollies breed with the platies?

2. What can I feed them besides my micro pellets and how do I feed/prepare those?
2A. I've heard of brine shrimp and bloodworms and I believe you touched on that above.

3. Will the males fight?

Thank you in advance))


Namirah?Canadian, Eh??

 

[Gio]

Hey, Namirah! Thanks for chiming in. To be quite honest all thin formation that Alison was kind enough to share has been my starting package if you will. I don't know much as I'm starting out too, but allot of these questions are answered above. Lots of helpful information.

As far as fighting.. I don't think so, I have two females and they play around a bit but nothing too serious. Did you get a starting tank and supplies?



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[Aliray]

Gio, Two meals per day only for most fish. breakfast and supper, Is how I feed mine. Did you go to the pet store yesterday? The fish I ordered, ember tetras, came in yesterday and boy are they tiny. The biggest one is about half an inch long and will top out at an inch when full grown.

 

[Aliray]

Hi Namirha, And welcome. To symplify I feed my community tank differently from my betta. For the tank, small tetras and shrimp. I feed 2 meals per day for a total of 14 meals per week. at least 2 of them are frozen baby brine shrimp and 2 of them are frozen bloodworms. Both of them come in a dehydrated form in a pkg. with the rest of the dry fish food. I don't like them personaly. I buy the packages in the freezer section of the fish store as I feel they are better. They come in little cubes. I take off as much as I want and put it in a small container with a teaspoon of tank water. Let it unthaw for a couple of minutes till they are all seperated then dump in the tank and watch the feeding frenzy begin. It gives the fish some healthy variety in their diet, and is easier than raising you own live foods which I did in my early 20's when I raised fancy guppies for my local fish store. I do not know whether platties and mollies will interbreed. The males should not fight they are peaceful community fish. Alison

 

[guppygourami]

I have a 23 gallon tank and I've had it for a while now, my fish seemed to be doing fine until this morning, one of the new platies died(

Edit: I wrote this after the post below...?

Namirah?Canadian, Eh??

 

[guppygourami]

Thanks for the warm welcome I've never fed my fish either foods but I am looking forward to feeding them the bloodworms. How do you feed them brine shrimp? I am going to the pet store soon to exchange the platy and I think I'll pick up both the shrimp and worms. I also did some searching around AA and found that many aquarists put the frozen block right in to the aquarium so that the worms don't sink to the bottom. I also saw that some people do not do that because residue from the water the bloodworms were in is bad for the tank and fish. I think your way is the safer solution but I'm reluctant to do so because only the gouramis stay at the bottom.


Namirah?Canadian, Eh??

 

[guppygourami]

Can the brine shrimp be fed the same way as bloodworms?


Namirah?Canadian, Eh??

 

[Aliray]

Hi, sorry you lost one of your platties. And yes I do the same thing with the brine shrimp. A whole cube is a lot of food. But the reason I do it my way is that where most of the tropical fish come from, I very much doubt they eat a lot of icy cold , frozen food.. The baby brine shrimp are very small. Plus by thawing, it just kind of goes everywhere and the fish all have an equal chance. Just remember you will have to judge by your fish and their size as to how much. Mine are extremely small, and the shrimp get any the fish miss. Alison

 

[guppygourami]

Hi, sorry you lost one of your platties. And yes I do the same thing with the brine shrimp. A whole cube is a lot of food. But the reason I do it my way is that where most of the tropical fish come from, I very much doubt they eat a lot of icy cold , frozen food.. The baby brine shrimp are very small. Plus by thawing, it just kind of goes everywhere and the fish all have an equal chance. Just remember you will have to judge by your fish and their size as to how much. Mine are extremely small, and the shrimp get any the fish miss. Alison

Thank you I guess I'll feed them bit by bit until I can see how much they can eat. Hopefully they'll enjoy the new food!


Namirah?Canadian, Eh??

 

[guppygourami]

Also, are the ones you recommend frozen or freeze dried?


Namirah?Canadian, Eh??

 

[guppygourami]

I found a couple types at PetSmart, I'll also look at Big Al's as these are my nearest fish stores. Here are screenshots, sorry for bad quality


Namirah?Canadian, Eh??

 

[guppygourami]

Namirah?Canadian, Eh??

 

[Aliray]

I get the frozen, because I think it is closer to it's natural form. I do not use the freeze dried. Just my choice. I just checked the brand and it it San Francisco Baby Brine Shrimp for small and baby fish. There is nothing else mixed in. The bloodworms, same brand just say frozen bloodworms. I get mine from Pet Supermarket which is I think a southern chain. Just ask the person at the pet store what size shrimp would be best for the type of fish that you have. Did they replace your fish? Alison

 

[guppygourami]

I get the frozen, because I think it is closer to it's natural form. I do not use the freeze dried. Just my choice. I just checked the brand and it it San Francisco Baby Brine Shrimp for small and baby fish. There is nothing else mixed in. The bloodworms, same brand just say frozen bloodworms. I get mine from Pet Supermarket which is I think a southern chain. Just ask the person at the pet store what size shrimp would be best for the type of fish that you have. Did they replace your fish? Alison

Thanks. They didn't replace the platy and one of my old mollies died today. I have no idea what's happening but I hope to do a WC tomorrow and clean out the ornaments and then check the parameters. Hopefully they'll be better soon.


Namirah?Canadian, Eh??

 

[ScaryFatKidGT]

Hi and welcome. Has the tank had a nitrogen cycle done or is it brand new? Did you put a water condishiner in to remove the chlorine the other chemicals? If not do you have something like tss starter that put the bacteria in the water to start a fish in cycle? I let the bag with fish sit in the water for an hour to get the temps the same, Then you can take a quater of the water out and add in the same amt of water from the tank. Do that two or three times and then net the fish out of the bag and put them in the tank. Discard all the water that came from the store down the drain. Look up the nitrogen cycle info for starting a tank. Good luck with your new fishies... Alison

I don't think its nessisary to remove water unless the bag is full already? Just add some of your water into the bag a couple times then remove the fish with a net and place in your tank.

The LFS here I trust and they mainly use there own RO water so I just dump the bag in but if I go to Petsmart or something I always pull the fish out, you never know whats in there water.

Thank you so much Alison! Yes I just got everything today. It's two little sunburst wag platys.. Never had them before but interested in having them as let's to start my new hobby like all of you here. I'm new to all of this and the pet shop owner told me I could keep two in a 2 gallon tank as long as it gets clean every week. And another guy tells me to keep them in a 10 gallon tank. So I got both to get the proper advice. Also been watching (Dustin's fishtank) on YouTube he's seems very savy on fish.

I would for sure get the 10 gallon. Just because you CAN keep them in a 2 doesn't mean you should. These tiny tanks (2.5, 5.5, 10 and 20g) are all pretty cheep 20-30 bucks so I've never understood why people want to keep fish in such small tanks.

Quick question.. If I want to add more water to the tank, how would I go about doing that? It's not as full as I wanted to be so i want to add more. Any particular process recommended?

Oh, and how often do I feed them and what kinds of food can I feed them? Thanks again for the time )

For the water get a bucket , put water conditions in the bucket and mix it up or let it sit for maybe 10 min and then dump it in.

For food it doesn't madder so much what you feed and when, so much as they get a variety (not ONLY flakes) I feed flakes, sometimes freeze dried blood worms and brine shrimp and then once a week they get frozen blood worms. Some fish will go after the other foods like its a treat, mine seem to just prefer the flakes.

For cleaning I would suggest a gravel vac, remove 1/4 to 1/2 of the water into that bucket and them dump it out and fill the bucket up to the same level.

For platys I would also get some Aquarium salt, how ever I would only do about 1/2 of what the box says and remember to only add it when you change water. When the water evaporates the salt stays there so just add regular conditioned water to make up for that.

I would do 1/2 daily or every other day water changes for a few weeks sense it doesn't sound like your tank is cycled, other wise those fish will just be fodder for cycling the tank.

 

[MollysMollies]

Scary, if they are going to add live plants, is aquarium salt still okay to use? My LFS told me that all plants are very sensitive to salt and it would kill them all?! Please clarify. I'd like to add some live plants to my tank, but I currently have it salted for my mollies. Thanks!


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