Platies: Good, Or Bad Beginner Fish?

[K.J.]

I am new-ish to fish keeping, and I have only really experianced fishkeeping with bettas. However, I may be able to buy a 10g tank when I get enough money.. are platies an option for this? I heard they need a 13g but does this depend on the numbers?

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

yeah i think a couple platies would b fine in a 10gallon. just dont everstock...

 

[kimmers318]

If you aren't wanting a bunch of babies though you might want to stick to males only. Most females are pregnant when you get them, and with males and females, you will regularly get more babies.

 

[basia]

Have you thought of guppies? I have a 10 gallon with just 7 different types of male guppy in. I have black gravel, background, a mango root and amazon swords and it displays the guppies really well. Everyone comments on that tank.

 

[Commander Cool]

I was thinking of getting platies myself when my 10g becomes ready. I was debating between platies and tetras. My only concern with platies is the amount of fry I will have on my hands. But forsome reason I can not keep a tetra alive. So I will prolly see if my lfs will take the platy fry and if they do then I will go with platies.

 

[The Lady Raven]

I have 4 platies in a Fluval Uno 500. They're fantastic little fish. My lfs recommended them for cycling for that tank. Ideally more space would be better but they're very healthy happy little fish and as long as you don't overfeed and you keep the bottom clean the water levels seem to be fine in a smaller tank. I also asked about taking fry back to the lfs and they said that would be fine, usually they're happy to have any fry back.

 

[vidiots]

If you aren't wanting a bunch of babies though you might want to stick to males only. Most females are pregnant when you get them, and with males and females, you will regularly get more babies.

I agree with this, a single female can over populate a 10gal tank in just a few months. If you don't have the space for a large population, it's best to limit it.