Platys mating.

[Ryan Morris]

Hi everyone about a month and a half ago I bought 3 platys, 1 male and 2 females. They have always got on with each other fine apart from the larger female would chase off the smaller female and the male sometimes. I haven’t witnessed any mating behaviour until tonight when I done a water change! After I had added some water I went to fill the bucket and when I came back I caught the male trying to mate with the smaller female! He was doing a weird little flick in front of her then he would come beside her to try and mate. At first the larger female wasn’t interested but now her and the smaller female will follow the male around the tank. Does anyone know if me doing a water change has triggered them to start breeding. They have both had large graves spots since I got them and the large female has always looked slightly boxed off aswell. Iv never bred platys so if anyone has any information then feel free to let me know.

Thank you

Ps they are in a 150 litre tank with
2 Kribensis male and female
3 dwarf gourami 1 male 2 female
1 red tail black shark ( gender unknown)
5 Serpai tetra ( gender unknown)
4 tiny Pakistani loach ( gender unknown)
1 tiny clown loach who came hiding in a piece of coconut hide for the Kribs
And 1 male firemouth Cichlide who I’m trying to rehome

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

In the wild you have two main seasons for fish, the wet season when it rains and there is lots of water for fish to swim about, eat and breed. And the dry season when there is no rain and the creeks and rivers dry up and the fish struggle to survive in puddles of water.

In an aquarium we do regular water changes to keep nutrients down and reduce the gunk and harmful microscopic organisms in the water. This also acts as a replacement for the rainfall during the wet season. Subsequently, most fish are stimulated by water changes because it resembles rainfall flowing through a creek or river, and this is when the majority of fish breed.

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Livebearers (platies, guppies, swordtails & mollies) live in groups made up primarily of females and a few males might tag along and try to breed with the females. The females have a pecking order with the biggest meanest ones in charge and they bully/ intimidate the smaller females around them.

When they breed, the male will impregnate a female with a sperm packet, which the female can use then or later on to fertilise a batch of eggs. Females can carry up to 6 sperm packets and use them when conditions are good to fertilise eggs in their body. The eggs develop, hatch and the baby fish (called fry) spend the first couple of weeks growing inside the mother before they are released as free swimming young.

The average gestation time is about 1 month and the females can give birth to anywhere between 1 & 100+ young. Most young females will produce smaller batches of young (10-20 babies) each month, but the older females will usually produce larger batches of young but they don't produce them as often.

The best thing to do with pregnant livebearers is leave them in a tank with lots of plants and try not to stress them. They are fine with water changes and feeding but don't chase them around or catch them in nets because it can damage the babies and the mother and she could give birth prematurely. If you have to move pregnant livebearers, you should use a net to guide them into a plastic container and lift the fish out in some water. But it is preferable to just leave them in the tank and try not to disturb them too much.

The baby fish will hide among the plants and you can scoop them out in a small plastic container and put them into a breeding net that hangs inside the aquarium. If you have a second aquarium you can move the babies into that instead.

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If the females have been fat for several months and not given birth, they probably have intestinal worms that can be treated quite easily. You use Praziquantel to treat tapeworms and gill flukes, and Levamisole to treat round/ thread worms.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating any fish.

Wipe the inside of the glass down and do a big (75%) water change and gravel clean the substrate before treating fish. Clean the filter too if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

You treat all the fish once a week for 3 weeks so any worm larvae that hatch from eggs are also killed.

You do a 75% water change 24-48 hours after treating the fish.

Only use 1 treatment at a time and do not mix them. Both chemicals are safe for all fish including babies, and will not affect the filter or plants.

You can treat with Praziquantel first, wait 24 hours and then do a 75% water change & gravel clean each day for 2 days. Then treat with Levamisole, wait 24 hours and do a 75% water change & gravel clean each day for a couple of days. Then start the treatment program again 7 days after the Praziquantel was first used, which will probably be a couple of days after the Levamisole was used.

Basically you would be treating both chemicals during the same week but have a few days between treatments where the medication is diluted with the water changes before the other medication is used. This will allow you to treat for both types of worms during the same week.

 

[Ryan Morris]

Thank you for your reply and the information you have gave me