Looking after Platies.

[Dave Paisley]

Hi my name is Dave Paisley 75 years old and up till 2 days ago never kept fish or knew anything about them.. Have got myself 2 X 65 litre tanks and have bought 18 Platys.
Just found out the females give live birth but the fry are eaten so I need to know how to make a safe place for the young ones!

 

[Munroco]

A densely planted tank will allow a fair percentage of them to survive but unless you have an outlet for the fry, your tanks will soon become overcrowded with a mass of platties.

 

[Dave Paisley]

A densely planted tank will allow a fair percentage of them to survive but unless you have an outlet for the fry, your tanks will soon become overcrowded with a mass of platties.

Thank you, I have purchased two hatcheries and I'm watching closely to see which females are ready to give birth... It's not easy catching them with all the plants etc for them to hide in though... Any suggestions? Was thinking the easiest time would be when changing their water!!

 

[NickAu]

Hi my name is Dave Paisley 75 years old and up till 2 days ago never kept fish

Hi Dave and welcome, In order to help you I have some questions.

Have you cycled the tanks?
Do you have filters?
Do you have heaters?
Do you have a Dechlorinator for your tap water?
Do you have a water test kit?

Have got myself 2 X 65 litre tanks and have bought 18 Platys.

A 65l tank is about 2 foot long, and wont hold many fish. How many fish have you got in a tank?

It's not easy catching them with all the plants etc for them to hide in though.

Catching and moving the fish will stress them as will separating them from the other fish.

 

[Dave Paisley]

Hi Dave and welcome, In order to help you I have some questions.

Have you cycled the tanks?
Do you have filters?
Do you have heaters?
Do you have a Dechlorinator for your tap water?
Do you have a water test kit?


A 65l tank is about 2 foot long, and wont hold many fish. How many fish have you got in a tank?


Catching and moving the fish will stress them as will separating them from the other fish.

Thank you for answering..I have everything I need apart from water testing kit. Pet shop said my water was fine, and I take their advice on my fish numbers...it's when the fry come along is my concern!

 

[fluttermoth]

I would say that you need to take all shop advice with a very large pinch of salt! Never forget that, unlike the members here, shops have to sell you stuff and make a profit, and that can seriously compromise the standard of the advice you get.

You really should get test kits of your own. Murphy's Law will tell you that the time you need to test urgently will be at 10:30 PM on a Saturday! If you do get a shop to test for you, you must get them to write down the actual numbers; 'fine' is of no use to anyone, tbh.

Making sure your water is good, and that your tanks are properly cycled is far, far more urgent than any fry coming along.

We don't recommend the use of hatcheries or breeding boxes; they're too small for the mother fish to feel comfortable (which can lead to them either holding onto their fry or aborting them) and too small for the fry to grow properly.

If you have some dense planting, you'll have plenty of fry survive. The parents won't search out and eat every fry, and if the fry are well fed and have plenty of good clean water, they grow too big to eat within a week or two.

If you bear in mind that every female can have at least 20 or 30 fry every 30 days (and can store sperm, so can continue having litters even if there are no males present) and that the fry themselves can start breeding at around three or four months old, you'll realise that your fish population can spiral out of control very quickly.

 

[NickAu]

Pet shop said my water was fine,

The pet-shop wouldn’t know their elbow from their backside, Pet shops will sell you a tank and fish on the same day and tell you " its fine ".

But as you did not answer my questions I will now bow out of this thread.

Good luck.

 

[Byron]

A 65 liter (17 gallon) aquarium cannot hold 18 platy. You say you have two tanks, so even if you divide the platy with 9 in each...you are still overcrowding them. If you have male and female, this is even worse. Males drive females hard, and they need more space for the poor females to escape, and you also must have a ratio of more females to male, by 3 or more. And as has been mentioned, many young will survive, and this is going to be a real problem very soon as the young platy will need room to develop properly. I second everything fluttermoth said. Don't use the nets, and please do not chase the female around with a net, that is serious stress and could permanently damage them.

And never believe anything employees in a fish store tell you unless you know the individual has an education in fish care. It is easy today to confirm advice online on forums like TFF. And, welcome to TFF.

Byron.

 

[Dave Paisley]

The pet-shop wouldn’t know their elbow from their backside, Pet shops will sell you a tank and fish on the same day and tell you " its fine ".

But as you did not answer my questions I will now bow out of this thread.

Good luck.

Didn't see any question from you, I thought it was advice you gave me not a question, but feel free to bow out, I'm sure I'll manage without you!!

 

[Dave Paisley]

Didn't see any question from you, I thought it was advice you gave me not a question, but feel free to bow out, I'm sure I'll manage without you!!

Just looked back and found your questions and I told you I have everything I need without itemising and putting numbers to my answers... I am not a schoolboy!

 

[Essjay]

You have answered all Nick's questions but one - Have you cycled the tanks?
This means adding ammonia and waiting several weeks for enough bacteria to grow before getting fish. But you have said that you don't have your own test kit. If you don't have a test kit how did you cycle the tanks?

 

[Elainec]

Hi my name is Dave Paisley 75 years old and up till 2 days ago never kept fish or knew anything about them.. Have got myself 2 X 65 litre tanks and have bought 18 Platys.
Just found out the females give live birth but the fry are eaten so I need to know how to make a safe place for the young ones!

I'm rearing young Platy fry in a 10ltr tank at the moment and feeding Liquifry No2 for livebearers. In a communal tank other fish will eat the young. Either use a hatchery that you can sucker to the glass of the tank to separate pregnant female until she gives birth, or a floating hatchery. Please note that plastic hatcheries can get in the way when doing water changes, and floating hatcheries can easily become unstable. Hence the fact I bought a small Hagen nano heater and 10ltr aquarium.

 

[fluttermoth]

We don't recommend the use of hatcheries; they're really too small.

If you have enough hiding places in the main tank, plenty of fry will survive, the parents and other fish are very unlikely to eat them all, unless your tank is bare and overstocked.