platty care

[lovemyplatties]

Hello everyone! I'm totally new to this fish world...I have been looking for a nice forum where I could actually read people's experiences...find this forum/site the best.

My question is pretty general...what do platties need in order to survive? I have a one gallon fish bowl w/ two mickey mouse platties...male and female. There were three before two females, one male. After about two weeks the female died; I read somewhere that i could isolate the female when it's about to give birth. Isolation, from my experience, was a bad idea...she died

I am not sure thought if either or both female platties gave birth...I now have 11 fry fishies. I found a small fish bowl at a garage sale...so they'll be there for awhile.

So...my questions really are: What can I do to keep my older platties happy? I feed them tetramin thrice a day...the fish bowl has airstones (tiny one) in it. Is there a site that I could check out that'll have pictures of what a healthy platty looks like...and a site that'll tell me what kind of diseases they can get...with pictures? Last but not the least, i read somewhere that I had to separate the fry from the older platties in order for the fry to survive, otherwise they'll get eaten. I'm not sure if I should follow that advice since the same site's advise killed my other platty (I isolated the pregnant female from the rest).

Everyone's input is gladly appreciated

 

[Dakota Ice]

A bowl is not acceptable for a platy. Your female most likely died of bad water quality. The nastiness builds up VERY quickly in small bowls or tanks -- especially ones without filtration. A platy NEEDS atleast, a 5 gallon tank, to live. If you cant do that, and can only have a bowl, then a betta is more for you. They are very prettiful fish too.

 

[yhbae]

Yup, as pointed out already, you should get yourself a real aquarium with a proper filter and a heater.

I suggest you get at least 10g tank, but larger the better and easier to stablize and maintain the water condition for them.

Also, one male to one female ratio is awful for the female - you should bring that up with 1M:2F or more.