Marigold Platy Or Sunset Platy

[alysonpeaches]

What is the difference between the sunset platy and the marigold platy. I have a few platys in 3 different tanks. My latest lot I was told were marigold, another one I have was sunset and I also have some mickey mouse platys with the orange colouration. Can anyone define marigold platy or sunset?

These are my fave fish, I have a real soft spot for them.

 

[Gill]

marigolds are stunning aren't they. from what i understand:
marigolds have a more uniform coloration
where as the Sunsets have the setting sun coloration starting at the base of the tail and moving towards the front of the fish.

 

[lilfishie]

from what i have seen labelled as marigolds, they have a gold colour that goes to red whereas sunsets orange to red

 

[rhostog]

I've also wondered, as the platys we have were labelled as marigolds in the shop (which sells a huge variety of platys, so I kind of assumed they should know... perhaps that's a bit naive...!) - but I've also seen pictures of very similar fish labelled as sunsets.

According to 'What Fish?' by Interpret publishing, 'The marigold platy has a basic colour of yellow, deepening to orange towards the rear, becoming blood red at the base of the tail'. This, and the accompanying photo, exactly matches our marigold platys. I wish they'd stay still long enough for me to take a photo, but all I have is pics of the aquarium with a blurred orange splodge across the middle...

Our marigolds have developed deeper colours since we got them, especially the male. They started out small, and fairly uniform orange, a little darker orange towards the tail, but now they've grown, their faces are orange, then the body is yellow, then darkening back to orange about halfway along their bodies, darkening to red at the base of the tail.

Pictures of sunset platys seem to be similar to the marigold, but more of a yellow, even silvery colour on the body, and with the face the same colour as the body rather than orange. Just to confuse us, there also seems to be a 'neon' variation of either, with a blue-silvery sheen overlaid on the body, and also your Mickey Mouse variation, with the black markings overlaid on the basic colour.

There are some pictures of the two sorts on the following website (sunset is near the bottom of the page):

[URL="http/goliadfarms.com/pages/products/fish/livebear/platies/main.htm"]http/goliadfarms.com/pages/products/fish...laties/main.htm[/URL]

If anyone knows better, though, I'd be very interested to find out the correct definition!

 

[alysonpeaches]

I've also wondered, as the platys we have were labelled as marigolds in the shop (which sells a huge variety of platys, so I kind of assumed they should know... perhaps that's a bit naive...!) - but I've also seen pictures of very similar fish labelled as sunsets.

According to 'What Fish?' by Interpret publishing, 'The marigold platy has a basic colour of yellow, deepening to orange towards the rear, becoming blood red at the base of the tail'. This, and the accompanying photo, exactly matches our marigold platys. I wish they'd stay still long enough for me to take a photo, but all I have is pics of the aquarium with a blurred orange splodge across the middle...

Our marigolds have developed deeper colours since we got them, especially the male. They started out small, and fairly uniform orange, a little darker orange towards the tail, but now they've grown, their faces are orange, then the body is yellow, then darkening back to orange about halfway along their bodies, darkening to red at the base of the tail.

Pictures of sunset platys seem to be similar to the marigold, but more of a yellow, even silvery colour on the body, and with the face the same colour as the body rather than orange. Just to confuse us, there also seems to be a 'neon' variation of either, with a blue-silvery sheen overlaid on the body, and also your Mickey Mouse variation, with the black markings overlaid on the basic colour.

There are some pictures of the two sorts on the following website (sunset is near the bottom of the page):

<a href="http/goliadfarms.com/pages/products/fish/livebear/platies/main.htm" target="_blank">http/goliadfarms.com/pages/products/fish...laties/main.htm</a>

If anyone knows better, though, I'd be very interested to find out the correct definition!

Thank you for your detailed answer. err Im confused as what I thought was marigold might not be.

I will post some pictures and see if you can all decide which is which for me.

The above two I thought were marigold. What do you think?

These are mickey mouse Hi fin type, but are they sunset, or even sunset neon?

 

[rhostog]

Well, I'd agree that the ones in the last pic, the MM high fins, are sunset, difficult to tell if they're neons because they look different in different lights - neons seem to have a sort of silvery bluish iridescence over the base colour.

The others don't look quite like my marigolds, as they don't have the red base to their tail. However, if they are young fish, they could be still developing their full colours. Mine didn't have the red until some weeks after we got them, and looked pretty much like yours when they arrived, maybe a little darker but it's hard to tell from a photo. I do remember comparing them to the picture in the What Fish book and being unsure, whereas now they're a perfect match.

They're really attractive fish anyway, whatever they are, and stand out so well against that blue! Are the others in the pic endlers? They're gorgeous!

Sorry I can't be more help - I'd be interested if someone more knowledgeable can confirm!

 

[alysonpeaches]

Thanks.

Yes got endlers too, 5 males, from same breeder as marigold platys. I wish I had bought some female endlers now as I would like to have a go at breeding livebearers. It strikes me that if I have to have multiple tanks if they breed, endlers might take up less room.

Funny thing is, the male endlers are taking an unhealthy interest in some of the marigold platys ...