Why arent my platy breeding????

[animal_man1738]

I have a 55 gallon tank with 3 male, 5 female platies. The tank is filtered kept at 82 and cycled. I also have tetras. No crustaceans or any live plants. I have had the platies for about a month now, and they show no signs of pregnancy. Am I doing something wrong??? Also, 2 of my male platies recntly died for NO REASON. Please tell me if im doing something wrong, and what should I fix? PS ammonia is under .25 and water is safe according to my local pet store.

 

[Demeter32]

Most live bearers need hard water. What is your water hardness and your pH? Post a few pictures of the fish if you would. Perhaps they are not healthy enough to breed.

Also, what are the nitrates (numbers please) and how often are you doing water changes? 82 degrees, while in their temp range, is on the high end. I'd lower the temperature to around 78-80 and see if that helps.

 

[animal_man1738]

Thank you for all this. I just tested the water, and...
Nitrates are around 50. Nitrites are 0. The total hardness is around 100 (maybe more).
CHlorine is 0.5
alkalinity is 80
Ph is 7.4 (a bit too high i think)
I will lower the temp and see if that helps- ps i also have tetras will the temp drop hurt them?

 

[Byron]

Nitrate at 50 ppm is too high. You need to keep it no higher than 20 ppm, and as low as possible is best. Like ammonia and nitrite, it is toxic to fish, but it just takes longer and the detriment is more "hidden." Not suggesting that is the issue here, but it doesn't help. [Is this all from the aquarium itself, or do you have nitrate in the source (tap) water? Test that on its own if you haven't already.] Live plants would also help. And how frequent and what volume are water changes?

The GH at 100 I assume is ppm (not degrees)? This is equal to 5 dGH. And not high enough for livebearers to be healthy. However, your tetras will prefer this, so before thinking about hardening the water, you might want to reconsider the fish.

The pH at 7.4 is not too high for livebearers, but with the GH and KH low the pH is likely to slowly lower. Fine for tetras, not for livebearers.

I agree with Demeter on the temp. What tetra species are these?

Clearly you have soft water, so soft water species is be the way to go, and there are so many. Almost any fish from South America and SE Asia (with very few exceptions) will be right at home. Livebearers sadly will struggle and weaken.

 

[animal_man1738]

Nitrate at 50 ppm is too high. You need to keep it no higher than 20 ppm, and as low as possible is best. Like ammonia and nitrite, it is toxic to fish, but it just takes longer and the detriment is more "hidden." Not suggesting that is the issue here, but it doesn't help. [Is this all from the aquarium itself, or do you have nitrate in the source (tap) water? Test that on its own if you haven't already.] Live plants would also help. And how frequent and what volume are water changes?

The GH at 100 I assume is ppm (not degrees)? This is equal to 5 dGH. And not high enough for livebearers to be healthy. However, your tetras will prefer this, so before thinking about hardening the water, you might want to reconsider the fish.

The pH at 7.4 is not too high for livebearers, but with the GH and KH low the pH is likely to slowly lower. Fine for tetras, not for livebearers.

I agree with Demeter on the temp. What tetra species are these?

Clearly you have soft water, so soft water species is be the way to go, and there are so many. Almost any fish from South America and SE Asia (with very few exceptions) will be right at home. Livebearers sadly will struggle and weaken.

Thank you for all this. The tetras are- Red eyed tetras, Neon (glow) tetra, and three penguin tetras(Thayeria boehlkei). So I have more platys than tetras right now. What do you suggest I do? I cant get rid of some of the fish.

 

[Byron]

Thank you for all this. The tetras are- Red eyed tetras, Neon (glow) tetra, and three penguin tetras(Thayeria boehlkei). So I have more platys than tetras right now. What do you suggest I do? I cant get rid of some of the fish.

The platies seem to be dying...will the store not take the remainder back, even just as a trade perhaps?

You need to decide which tetras you really want, and get more of those species. Tetras are shoaling fish and must be in a group, and while "six" is often considered the minimum, they will always be better with more. A 55g is lots of space, so you could have groups of 8-12 of any of these, or all of them if you really want those. There are a lot of tetras out there, and other soft water fish, so look around and see what you like, then ask us here. Some are fine, some may not be, some will chomp most any other fish.

 

[animal_man1738]

Thank you for this, but I would really like to breed fish. Any easy fish to breed, that are ok with tetras and soft water? I can see if I can give my platys back to the store. Would it be better to give away my tetras, increase my hardness, and do it like that?

 

[NickAu]

Why is your water so warm?
The optimum temperature for raising platies is between 70 - 77ºF (21 - 25°C)

 

[Byron]

Thank you for this, but I would really like to breed fish. Any easy fish to breed, that are ok with tetras and soft water? I can see if I can give my platys back to the store. Would it be better to give away my tetras, increase my hardness, and do it like that?

I will repeat here what I posted a moment ago in the other thread...keep a topic in one thread, it makes it easier for us and you.

Selecting fish suited to your source water is much easier and safer for the fish and for you. Water changes having to somehow prepare the water in storage tubs are not easy, and emergency water changes occur at some point and can really mean saving or losing your fish. Don't make it more complicated than it already is.

Breeding fish is a big topic. Livebearer fry appear quite naturally, though without some good form of cover like floating plants, few if any will survive. Eventually there will be more than the mature fish can eat, depending.

Egg laying fish have their own breeding methods according to species, with some generalities. Generally, breeding and raising fry in community tanks is next to impossible, with a few exceptions. All fish recognize any fish eggs as gourmet food. Successful rearing of fry means providing individual breeding tanks for the adult pair, and suitable cover for the eggs; most fish will then turn and devour their own eggs if not removed or separated post-spawning, or the eggs are not somehow well protected/hidden. Then you have to provide microscopic food for the hatched fry. There are some species that provide a degree of parental guarding, sometimes just the eggs until they hatch, sometimes beyond this. Cichlids are parental guarders. And some catfish (plecos). Gourami, usually. Some species are so prolific there will be fry no matter what, almost. I had a group of 7 Diamond Tetra that I moved into my 90g, and now, about two months later, there are over 20 of the species, in varying sizes from multiple spawnings. The clumps of Java Moss in this tank are obviously ideal protection for some of the eggs that don't get eaten as they are expelled. Planted tanks tend to have a lot of microscopic food for fry, especially with lots of wood.

 

[animal_man1738]

So..... do you think plecis would be a good start for breeding? I can set up a breeding tank, I have a 10 gallon and I can put the female so she can lay her eggs, than put her back. I know a guy who can help me once I have the eggs layed. Would diamond tetras be an easier fish to get eggs from?

 

[Byron]

Platy is a livebearer. This group includes platy, swordtail, moilly, guppy and Endler, and a couple others you will not normally encounter in most stores. These all occur in Mexico and/or Central America, and need moderately hard or harder water. You water is soft.

Diamond Tetra are certainly prolific spawning fish. Many but not all tetras are similar. I have a group of Lemon Tetra in a 29g on their own, initially I had 8 I think, now there are close to thirty after a year. If I took the trouble to provide separate tanks for most of my other tetras, I know I would see spawning and some fry. Same with my cories...I have several fry mainly rescued from the canister filter during the regular cleaning. I see spawning activity frequently, but the eggs almost always get eaten. Some of the danio are reputedly easy to spawn.

Have a look at the fish profiles on Seriously Fish. There is a "Reproduction" section for each species. All of us here use this site for data. You can enter the fish name in the search field; scientific names are best, but most entries have a common name, though it may not be all that "common" depending where you live; common fish names often change from region to region.
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/knowledge-base/

 

[NickAu]

Hi

Why do you want to breed fish?
What are you going to do with the babies? And please don't say you will sell them to the local fish place, These people have regular suppliers and wont buy off you in most cases.

As Byron points out breeding fish is not as simple as adding a male and female to a tank.

I looked into breeding Bettas, but decided against it because I had nowhere to do it and nowhere to sell the fry.

This would be one or 2 spawning s worth of fish

 

[animal_man1738]

Well, the local pet shop in my area is not a chain pet store, and I have sold pet reptiles to them before. They have told me they would buy my fry(but for very cheap). Also, I have friends who have tanks, and I could give some to them for free. Also, do betas really breed that fast? Never knew. Would danios be a good choice? They breed fast but I don’t want to be overwhelmed with fry.

 

[animal_man1738]

Wow.... that’s a lot of fish. I was told that if I bred them, only one or 2 could survive. I could deal with 1or 2 fish. Also, my pet shop is locally owned and they buy fish from people all the time. I’ve sold crested geckos to them. Would danios be an easy fish to breed?

 

[Byron]

There are some other aspects to recognize. Stores want juvenile fish, but not fry, usually anyway. So that means you need tank space to raise the fry to a size when you can sell them. That means lots of tanks, plenty of suitable food, water changes daily (depends a bit on your tank sizes, you cannot crowd fry or they will not develop properly).