New to Fish: Got Some Questions

[theotheragentm]

I have Platies, and one of them was pregnant. It gave birth, and I have the babies in the same water, but separated but a net incubator. I have also been noticing strange behaviour, and I was hoping someone could shed some light on these fish for me. I'm looking for good resources I can read on my own if you have them.

1. I have two yellow, two orange, and two black Platies. They hang out with their own color only almost all the time. Is this normal?

2. The black Platies are the largest, but one is definitely larger than the other. The smaller one seems to chase the big one. It'll dart at the big one with its mouth open. The big one has no problems getting away, but this will stop and go. It seems to have no end, but the big one will also swim by the little one, so I don't know what to make of this.

3. What do I feed the babies? I've crushed the normal fish flakes up really tiny, and they seem to eat them, but I don't know if there is something better.

4. The adult fish seem to want to eat non stop. Is this normal or am I not feeding them enough? I'm reading that you should only feed what your fish can eat in 1-3 minutes, but that seems like a lot, since they eat voraciously and non stop.

5. I've read different temperature ranges to keep these fish at, and I'm a bit confused. My water is about 76 degrees, and this seems to be fine. Is that right?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[joannde]

Hi

1. Platies aren't schooling fish, so they normally don't hang out together. Nothing to worry about unless you see fin nipping (unlikely)
2. Sounds like a male pursuing a female. Females have "normal" looking anal fins; in males they are more merged and come to a point
3. Crushed flakes are fine. BTW, you may not want to separate them, unless you want to keep ALOT of babies (and have the room for them) or know that your LFS will take them. Trust me, you'll be overrun soon
4. Fish are generally opportunists and will eat whenever they can, as much as they can. Its very easy to overfeed (not very healthy). I'd feed them 2x a day, about 2 or 3 flakes per fish
5. 76 is good

[theotheragentm]

Thanks for your help. I took a look at the black fish, and they both appear to be female, although I'm not very educated still. Maybe I don't have the eye to tell. Is chasing bad with two females if they are truly females?

If my eye is correct, and I am properly sexing the fish, I see only one male. Will I still be overrun with fry soon? The fry I currently have were from the already pregnant fish. Is there any tell tale sign that mating has gone on? I know what to look for in order to spot a pregnant fish.

[garth7]

As far as I know with my experience, I would look for a tired fish. I have only seen this a couple times a long time ago and the tiredness dont even really mean that something has happened succesfully.

I would say that you should have one happy male platty though.

[theotheragentm]

Upon looking this morning, I'm kind of at a toss up on whether that smaller black Platy is a male or female. I hope it's just an over eager male and not a generally aggressive fish that will always be bothering the other fish. I guess in the human world, there's not much difference.

So, there will be no cloudiness in the water after mating?

Thanks for your help.

[joannde]

There's should be no clouding as Platies are livebearers and the males deposit sperm into the females.

If you have only one male and all those females you're going to have LOTS AND LOTS of fry - the male will impregnant all of them.

If you can post a pic we can tell you if they are males or females

[Elmware2000]

1. I have two yellow, two orange, and two black Platies. They hang out with their own color only almost all the time. Is this normal?

I'm not sure about this one. I would think it was normal.

2. The black Platies are the largest, but one is definitely larger than the other. The smaller one seems to chase the big one. It'll dart at the big one with its mouth open. The big one has no problems getting away, but this will stop and go. It seems to have no end, but the big one will also swim by the little one, so I don't know what to make of this.

The smaller one could be a male. Sometimes you can see the dorsel fin underneith the male. Maybe see if you can get another female in the tank so the male would stop harrassing her as much.

3. What do I feed the babies? I've crushed the normal fish flakes up really tiny, and they seem to eat them, but I don't know if there is something better.

Crushing flakes works fine. You may also want to feed them live baby brine shrimps. You can buy hatcheries for them.

4. The adult fish seem to want to eat non stop. Is this normal or am I not feeding them enough? I'm reading that you should only feed what your fish can eat in 1-3 minutes, but that seems like a lot, since they eat voraciously and non stop.

Livebearers can be pigs. they will excrement just to eat more IMO. Don't keep constantly feeding them because they will pass the food through too fast to fully digest which is like overfeeding your fish.

5. I've read different temperature ranges to keep these fish at, and I'm a bit confused. My water is about 76 degrees, and this seems to be fine. Is that right?

75 degrees is ok for most tropical fish. Some fish may vary.

If I'm not mistaken I believe that Platties are also slightly brackish fish so you may want to add salt to the water.

[joannde]

Platies are not brackish, no salt is needed. You may be thinkng of mollies that do "better" with some salt

[Elmware2000]

probably. They seem simular to me.