How Many Platies

dylema · Apr 9, 2006

I know the surface area rule (ie how many square inches of surface = inches of fish you can have). This doesn't seem apropriate for my tank as it would allow me to have 180 (crazy) fish even if I miss interpreted the rule and I should only have 36" of fish thats like 15-20 adult platies in there wich seems likle a lot. I have a 20g 3' tank. You can see my current stocking in my signature. I am slowly collecting more fish by way of fertile platies and I don't know when enough is too much. Thanks in advance.

blitztidus · Apr 10, 2006

That is a lot, I would go by 1 platy for every 2-5 gallons

Annastasia · Apr 10, 2006

I wouldn't fully stock with Platies. You WILL have fry, and you need to allow space for that. You can quickly become overrun, and extra space is always good with Livebearers.

dylema · Apr 10, 2006

Yes I do have fry :lol:

. 1 platy for each 2-5 g sounds better :good:

thats say 10 platies in my tank I think thats enough. I will just have to find new homes if they fry keep growing.

wendywc · Apr 10, 2006

Actually I think the square-inch rule is one inch of fish per 10 inches of square inch. As I heard it anyway, better is the inch-per-gallon rule... so a platy being 2 inches needs 2 gallons. But 2-5 gallons is even better.