Is There Such A Thing As Cold Water Platy's

[mixmaster jay]

i have never seen or heard of these before so i was just wondering if anyone else has or have some or does actually know the answer

thanks
jay

 

[dave_oddballs]

i was always under the impression platys were sub tropical so didn't necessarily need a heater anyway!
buy one and find out, there only about 70p lol!!

 

[mixmaster jay]

lol yeah i suppose i don't think they would fair well in my pond though lol and they might eat my goldfishfry in a spare tank

 

[silverrabbit]

I've seen some in the coldwater section in P@H near me too lol. I didn't think they were coldwater... I have mine in a normal 26C tank

 

[mixmaster jay]

they aren't really my cup of tea to be honest i was just intreaged about them i thought they where just tropical but there you go lol

 

[Duck and Dive]

They can tolorate room temperature but when it drops below 20oc it may be a problem. It is best to keep them in tropical water though.

P@H what can I say.

 

[OldMan47]

Common aquarium strain platies can easily tolerate temperatures down to about 68F, 20C. Much less common are wild type platies that make up about 15 or 20 distinct species. Among those, I am sure some will be more tolerant of low temperatures than others.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

My pond Platies have been in outside ponds for the last (approximately) 10 years....... We are currently at the end of our winter in SA, but in mid winter, I did measure water temperatures as low as 8 deg C (& believe it was a lot colder at times)..... My Platies survived and kept on breeding throughout the winter.

I think they may have evolutionised over the period to tollerate colder conditions....... I am the only breeder that I know of who keeps them outside all year round, and those I supply to Pet shops are reportedly a lot hardier than any others they purchase.....

 

[dunchp]

The short answer is NO!! However if this question was placed in the rarer livebearer section then the answer would be YES!!

You need to define 'cold' as many 'tropical' fish will survive fine in an unheated tank in a centrally heated house - this is not cold; whereas few will survive long in a pond in the winter in the UK (although I am not sure what the temperatures get to in South Africa).

As I am sure you all know, common platies are descended from two types of platy, the maculatus platy and the variatus platy, neither are true coldwater species although the variatus platy can take cooler temperatures than the maculatus platy which really need warmer water. Similarly the common swordtail is descended from Xiphophorus helleri.

As oldman has said there is perhaps 30 species of wild platys and swords and some do really well in properly cold water.

I had a powercut in my fishroom over the winter and the water temperature dropped to 3-4 degrees C. Of the species which were unaffected were Xiphophorus evelynae (X. variatus also survived) and I have heard anecdotal stories of this species being accidentally overwintered in a pond under ice. If I am able to build up my stocks then I will experiment with this over the course of winter 2010, so I would say that if you want to keep a true coldwater platy then the closest you will get will be X. evelynae.

As for swords X. malinche, whilst being extremely rare, requires cool to cold water and fares really badly in even mildly heated aquaria (which is one of the reasons why it is so rare).

 

[HomeOfThePlaties]

Yes, they do. I own two They live in my tank along with some Placos, Black Moor Fish and Fantails

 

[panda_cory]

Yes you can buy platys for a coldwater tank

 

[allan078]

i have never seen or heard of these before so i was just wondering if anyone else has or have some or does actually know the answer

thanks
jay

I've noticed this too. They are variatus platy and they used to have them labeled as "temperate" water fish - IE room temperature. They're now selling them as cold water fish, the same as they do for goldfish. A bit misleading i think, as a goldfish would be quite happy in a pond outside, and a platy would not!

 

[phurn]

I had platy in with goldfish for about two years no probs, I only took them out when I set up a tropical tank.

 

[BlueDragon]

My tank is sub-tropical and as such is not heated. Their water temp stays at 72 to 73 and drops only down to 70 at night (the fry tank is the same). I have two Platties and they're fine. Very lively and colourful. I wouldn't class my tank as cold water 'cause it's in a very warm house. I have M.E. and the house has to be heated right for me so I don't get too cold 'cause I'm not able to keep my own temp very well... like Fish! And the Tank is in the warmest room, the living room.

I'd say platties wouldn't do well in a cold water tank and I wouldn't class them as cold water, but mine have never had a problem in my tank. They live with Guppies and although I've just had another death it wasn't water temp related and normally they do fine too.

 

[FishBlast]

My tank is sub-tropical and as such is not heated. Their water temp stays at 72 to 73 and drops only down to 70 at night (the fry tank is the same). I have two Platties and they're fine. Very lively and colourful. I wouldn't class my tank as cold water 'cause it's in a very warm house. I have M.E. and the house has to be heated right for me so I don't get too cold 'cause I'm not able to keep my own temp very well... like Fish! And the Tank is in the warmest room, the living room.

I'd say platties wouldn't do well in a cold water tank and I wouldn't class them as cold water, but mine have never had a problem in my tank. They live with Guppies and although I've just had another death it wasn't water temp related and normally they do fine too.

The many years I've kept different types of fish without heaters... LOL.
Swordtails and guppies seem the strongest when it comes to extreme temps (beside hoplos, which are not livebearers). Even now they survive the high-end of the extreme temps, going as far as 100F / 40C. And they've survived winters of 68F / 20C with no heater.
But my room is heated during winters, so it usually doesn't drop below that, except when power outages come, then it drops to 64.4F / 18C.