How Many Platys In A 35l?

[Spishkey]

i have a small aquarium here which my son would like in his room (i have now agreed after all the whinging)
now he would like micky mouse platys but i fear the tank is too small for a few? if i stuck to males only, how many would i need to disperse aggression and would that amount live happily in a tank that size?

or if i went for females only (i know they'd probably have fry for the first few months but the fry can go in my fry tank until the mothers have used up their sperm stores!)
how many females could he have in there?

many thanks


(it is a fully matured tank been running for 8 months, i think that may make a difference to the numbers?)

 

[Corleone]

You can go males only and avoid the initial fry potential - platys should be fine this way as long as there's no females around, and the males are a bit smaller than females.

With such a mature tank, 5-7 males should be no problem with adaquate filtration, though from your other post, you said this has been a fry tank? I'm not sure if the biofilter would be strong enough to sustain a full stock of adult platys after that, would be best to start with 3 and increase slowly from there..

 

[Spishkey]

ah right thats fabulous, i always thought you needed lots of males to stop them fighting!

thank you for the reply!

 

[jonnyf84]

Just this week i changed the stock of my 35L, i had 5 adult female platys - Having only females provides much more harmony in the tank although after 4 months one of them did develope a Gonopodium - which is normal. In my community tank I have 3 Males and despite there been much more space and hiding places they never stop squabbling. IMO i would stick with females. I completely agree with the above comment about starting with a low stock, 2-3 fish, then a month later add another 1 or 2.

Good Luck,

Jonny.

 

[lilfishie]

an all male group should be fine, just keep a minimum of 5, i have found this best IME