Is A Platy Species Tank Possible For Casual Hobbyist

[CluelessAboutFish]

I have a problem. My kids love the Platys because they are the most colorful fish. Not to mention they have a "Mickey Mouse" strain. The problem is that I don't want to breed fry. I thought I had the problem all worked out until I came here. There just doesn't seem to be a good option.

Mixed Sex (2 Girls for Each Guy) - Sounds like this would make the fish the most happy. Makes sense. But what about all that fry. Does the tank become overrun with all those babies. I'm willing to do survival of the fittest. But geez it sound like the entire tank will be swimming with these guys. If I have a 30 gallon tank. That means I could keep about 15 platys - 10 of which would be giving birth constantly. Each has about 50 babies each month. Thats 500 fry each month. Yikes. Even if only 1%survived, that would be 5 extra fish I need to find a home for each month.

All Female - Sounded good until you find out that they come pre-fertilized and for months I'm going to have hundreds of fry in my filter. Yuck.

All Male - Sounded good until you find out that the males are not really peaceful because they are sexually frustrated without plenty of girls to go around. I don't mind a little nipping. But I don't want a Tiger Barb type tank.

There is really no good option for the casual hobbyist. Why do they even sell these things as Petsmart. Knowing this is such a huge problem, aren't there any stores online that sell females that have been kept separate from males?

If I sound frustrated, I am.

 

[theotheragentm]

The best bet is all female Platy and hope that there aren't any ones that have been recently impregnated. If there are Fry, I don't think the filter is where they will end up. They're more likely to be eaten. If they survive, you're stuck unfortunately. You might be able to sell some off to a LFS or give some away to other fish enthusiasts.

 

[Tolak]

Look into some smaller, or a little more peaceful new world cichlids. A single apistogramma or angel will take care of any fry.

 

[CluelessAboutFish]

Will platy eat their own fry. I've got conflicting information about that.

And what really happens when the platy give birth. Given some descriptions, I imagine a sea of swimming eyeballs takes over the entire tank. By other descriptions, I may see a few fry here and there. By some descriptions,each month I will have hundreds of platy to place. By other descriptions, only a few make it that far.

 

[kimmers318]

Take heart...it shouldn't be as bad as you are imagining. My experience with platy...for the same reasons...the kids loved them, esp the Mickey Mouse variation....is that the first drop of fry from each female was rather large....in the 30-50 fry range. We of course tried to save them all. Now, as the mama's are older I find that they drop 8-12 at a time and not quite as frequently as I have heard. We actually decided to take advantage of the "frequent fryer" mode we expected to be used as feeders for the oscars. Sounds cruel, I know, but the quality of feeder fish at LFS's is dismal, and they carnivores really do appreciate the occasional live food. The last fry drop was only 5.....4 disappeared when we didn't rescue them, and 1 has survived. If you want platy's go ahead....get the females, and let things happen. Start with about 1/2 of what you really want to have in the end, wait and see what fry do survive, and keep just the females from the group of offspring. Eventually the original females will run out of stored sperm and not produce anymore fry and you may have just the right amount of fish. Be careful though that you get the males out before they can produce more pregnant females. A simple breeder trap or small inexpensive 10 gal would allow you to grow them out to the size that you can sex them.