Introduction to me and my fish.

[Peacefulplanet3]

Hi I'm most interested in live-bearers and have been raising, exclusively Red Wag Platy's for about 3yrs now. Have learned how to control their numbers a bit, having as many as 50 at the most extreme case of overpopulation in this tiny little 9 gallon tank, and mostly or almost stabilize their ecosystem without needing to clean the sides more than about quarterly, or change-out the water, I can usually just add more and keep the little feeder door open to allow more evaporation.

This has been a big part of my goal. More accurately it is to recreate a balanced ecosystem that also looks appealing through the clear sides of a tank for us "hoomans" looking in from the outside, an admittedly unnatural setting.

I am down to only 2 females out of a relatively stable 2 females and 2 males the past 6 months or so, as has been a bit more out of balance since I moved to a smaller and probably hotter apt. With that in mind: here's a current shot of my aquarium.

Any fellow aquarium and ecosystem fans and hobbiests feel free to comment.

Thanks,
Joel

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[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

You mention cleaning the glass quarterly and changing water. How often do you clean the tank and change part of the water?

If you are just leaving the water to evaporate and topping it up, that is extremely bad for the fish. Fish live in a soup of bacteria, protozoans, viruses and fungus and these microscopic organisms build up in number and attack the fish. In addition to this, the end result of the filtration cycle is nitrates and these continue to build up and need to be diluted with water changes. If you are not doing regular (weekly or fortnightly) water changes, your fish are going to be quite stressed. Finally, without regular water changes the pH can drop and become very acidic and this is bad for livebearers, which naturally occur in hard alkaline water.

If you haven't been doing regular water changes I would suggest doing a 10% water change each day for a week. Then 20% water change each day for a week. After that I would suggest a 50-75% water change each week.

You should also be cleaning the gunk out of the substrate when you do a water change. The easiest way to do this is with a basic model gravel clean like the one in the following link.
https://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

You use a gravel cleaner when you do water changes. As you drain water out of the tank you push the gravel cleaner tube into the gravel and lift it up. the gunk in the gravel gets drawn up and out with some water and the clean gravel sinks back to the bottom. Gravel cleaning and water changes should be done once a week if possible.

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I don't know if you have a picture or backing on the back of the aquarium but it helps the fish to have something across the back. It makes them feel more secure.

As for recreating a balanced ecosystem, in the wild platies live in groups of 20-200 (usually around 30-50) and most of the fish in the group are females. A few males follow the group as they move around looking for food and shelter. Having 2 males and 2 females is not the best combination because the males constantly harass the females and try to breed with them. In a small aquarium I usually recommend a group of 3-4 females and no males. If you want to breed them you put a male in with them for a week and then remove him. However, if you buy fish from a shop the females will usually be pregnant when you get them. The females store sperm packets from when they breed and can use the sperm packets to fertilise eggs they develop. The females can carry the sperm packets for 6 months and use them during that time. This means you only need a male every 6 months and once he has bred he can be moved somewhere else.

If you want to keep males and females in the same tank, then you try to have at least 4 but preferably 6 or more females per male.