breeding platys

[bball4life]

I have 2 platys in my tank 1 male 1 female I am trying to breed them nothing has is happening. They usually dont even swim with each other. Is there anything I can do?

 

[Skylar]

I would suggest getting more females, maybe two or three more? Are there any other fish in your tank? Maybe your male just doesn't like her.

 

[bball4life]

Well when I looked at all of the platys in the tank at the store it surprised me none of the fish really looked fond of eachother but I dont know. The platys I have are red dalmation if I got another colored platy could they still breed? Yes, there are 3 other guppies.

 

[Kiarra]

Your female is pretty much guaranteed to be already pregnant, and will be for a good long time, even after she gives birth to her batch. So don't worry...they've already on their own, and it's doubtful your male is the father. She's probably carrying 6-7 sperm packets within her body from previous males' inseminations, so, even without the male there, she should give you fry every 2 months or so in good conditions.

When she runs out of sperm packets, or if he inseminates her after she has given birth but before she has used a sperm packet, then your male can father fry with her.

It would be really good for her if you would get another female. The male's attentions can be a little too much for just one female to take, and, believe me, eventually, he will probably notice that she is a girl. Two females divides the attention from the male between them, and makes it tolerable. Livebearers should always be kept in at least a 2:1 ratio, with at least two females to each male.

 

[dwarfgourami]

I've been wondering the same thing. My male platy doesn't seem to know what he ought to be doing. He's a pink mickey mouse platy called Mickey- though I'm beginning to wonder if Goofy wouldn't be a more appropriate name. Can't see that my male guppy is having any success either. He is very young (I think) and doesn't seem to know how to get on with it. And his girls wont be pregnant already as they were kept in separate tanks in the shop.
Young people of today, they are so indolent... Not like in my young days...

 

[bball4life]

Kiarra I dont think that she is already pregnant because I would probably already be able to tell. She is skinny. Also I know of a place near me that most of there fish are already pregnant, but they are mostly red (not the kind I have) could a male still breed with my female or can my male still breed with one of those females? p.s. sorry if this reply is out of order I just woke up.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I would get at least one more female as the minimum for mixed gender groups in platys(and most other livebearers) is one male per 2 females as having two females will mean that one will not get overly harrassed by the male but if you want a realy happy group i would suggest having 1male and 3females; basically the more females the better.
Platys will pretty much breed on their own with no help but there are some things you can do to increase the chances;

Keep perfect constant water stats
Top the tank up with lots of extra planting making some good heavily planted areas in the tank.
Provide the platys with a good nutritious mixed diet; i would say feed them some freezedried tubifex/daphinia/bloodworms with their flakes once every 3 days(remember not too overfeed though).
Keep tank temp at 25 degrees.
Do lots of small water changes(one every 3days) as this will help encourage the platys to mate and give birth).
Have a breeding net ready for any fry born or a(more idealy) a cycled fry tank.

 

[bball4life]

ok, but can the red dalmation platys breed with red platys? or any other platys

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yes they can; basically all platys can breed with other platys(including highfins and sailfins) including all the color variations, which is basically what your red dalmation one is(although i think it is probably a calico or painted one- when i say painted i don't mean dyed, painted is just another one of the many color paterns platys can be but either they can still breed with other types).
You'll probably end up with some nice interesting colors too, i cross-breed alot of my color variation platys.

 

[bball4life]

Ok I have a pregnat female now that I got from the fish store. The red dalmation female is definetly not pregnant. While I was at the store I was thinking of getting a male because they were active and the male I have now wont give my females the time of day, every time they are close to him he swims away. Do you think I should get another male?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You should realy try to avoid buying pregnant platys or any other livebearers from lfs's or at least go for ones that are in the early stages of the pregnancy as buying heavily pregnant fish can cause alot of complications to their pregnancy on occasion and she is less likely to do well.
How many platys do you have in total now exactly and their genders?
I would avoid buying anymore male platys unless you are going to have at least 1male per female and even after that i suggest adding an extra female for every male you buy after 2 males i.e 3males per 7females, or 4males per 10females etc.
Instead of buying anymore platys i would just leave the extra space you have in your tank for fry as long as its not already overstocked.

 

[bball4life]

Right now I have 1 male platy and 1 female platy. When I came back home the pregnant female disapeared. So I guess you were right.

 

[Kiarra]

...disappeared?

 

[bball4life]

Yes, disapeared I checked all over in the tank and shes not there so I dont know how to put it in any other way.

 

[Kiarra]

Did you check outside the tank? Do you have pets like a cat or a dog that could have eaten her...?