Red Platy Variations

[nsx]

Hi all, new to the forum!

So, I've been in Asia on extended assignment for a little over a year, and I recently got back into fishkeeping, after over 15 years since last having fish back in the US. It's amazing how inexpensive and plentiful fish are here compared to back in the US. The fish are roughly 1/10th the US price, and within a 5 mile radius of my house, there's more LFS's than I could visit in a day (I can think of at least 30 LFS's just off the top of my head). Selling fish in huge chain stores hasn't caught on here yet, which is probably a good thing.

Anyway, onto the original question. So, I've been to at least 25 or so of these LFS's, looking for Red Platies.

It seems that there are several fish by different names, but they all look like variations of Red Platies. Literally translated into English, the names for these fish are "Red Ball", "Red Bean", and "Red Teapot". The only noticeable difference is that on the Red Teapot, the belly is really round on both males and females, kind of like a Ballon Molly. I really can't tell the difference between Red Ball and Red Bean. The Red Teapots cost considerably more, about 3-4x of the other two, and usually are a lot larger as well.

So, how many different variations of Red Platy actually exist and can be commonly found at LFS's? Any distinguishing characteristics?

 

[patryuji]

The ones I know of are:

Mickey mouse (black mickey mouse shaped spot on the back near the caudal fin).
Twin bar (black stripes at the top and bottom of the tail fin)
sunset
just plain red
red wag (tail isn't red like the regular red)
red tuxedo (black mark along the central portion of the body with the outside areas being red)
All of the above with hi-fin
All of the above with sail-fin

BTW- what part of Japan? I lived in Aomori-ken (misawa-shi) for 6 years. I remember the pet stores there even had spider monkeys and many other exotic pets you cannot normally buy here in the US.

 

[nsx]

Thanks for the reply patryuji!

I meant just pure Red Platies, no other colorations. Prior to going to the LFS's here, I'd only heard of the varieties you mentioned. But, it seems that LFS's here carry 3 varieties of all red Platies.

It could be possible that Red Bean and Red Ball are the same, as shops that have one never have the other (not at the same time at least)

I'm actually in Taiwan. They have a lot of exotic pets that you can't get in the US here also.

 

[patryuji]

Oh, when I see Asia and assignment I always think of the military bases in Japan (as most military bases in Korea don't allow such luxuries as keeping pets). Not used to thinking outside of the "military" box.

Some places just like to give their own names to fish...happens here as well.