Platy

[mak]

Hi, just got my first fish for my aquarium. I got 4 Platy, so far so good. Just wondering what other fish I could put with them. I want a fighting fish, Gourami's and Angel fish. Will these get on with Platy?

 

[Sherriff]

What are the dimensions of your tank? That would help us to help you!

 

[mak]

I have a 60L tank. I am going to wait a couple of weeks until I add more fish.

 

[TallTree01]

The angelfish will get little too big for your tank. A couple of gouramis will do well. Honey and dwarf to name a few. Depending on the betta it may fight with th platies. Did you cycle the tank?

 

[mak]

I did cycle my tank, will a male fighting fish be ok for tank?  Also can I add more rocks and plants to my tank even though I have just put fish in?

 

[roz568]

hi how long did u cycle ur tank for?u can always add plants and rocks anytime

 

[Mamashack]

Male fighters are better in their own tank as they can either be aggressive to other fish if they see them as a threat or they can be attacked by other aggressive fish because of their fins! Some can work out ok in coomunity tanks but best to see what it is like on its own before just plonking one in there and losing either the fighter or the other fish!
EDIT: just a word of warning - If you have male and female platies in your 60L tank be aware that at some point in the not too distant future they will breed like rabbits and you'll be begging people to take them off your hands or buying a new tank every month to accommodate them. Once they start they produce live fry every 4-5 weeks and can be 30 upwards. Saw one video clip on Youtube where a female swordtail (platy variant) had 288 in one day!!!

 

[This Old Spouse]

Hey, food for the betta?

 

[Mamashack]

Well it's a thought!! lol

 

[This Old Spouse]

The only reason I mention it is that this last bunch of eggs had NO FUNGUS on any of the eggs. I've been trying to raise a batch for more than a year, and this has been more than successful because of those darn shrimp!

 

[Mamashack]

This is off topic so apologies mak - I've got some brine shrimp to hatch out when I get my betta home and am still looking for the best way to do it in a home-made kit. Not going to pay the prices some places charge for a glorified soda bottle!

 

[mak]

I cycled my tank for 2 weeks. In the book that came with the aquarium, it says I should do a water change every 2 days for 2 weeks when adding first fish. Is this true?

 

[Mamashack]

It takes several weeks to do proper fishless cycling. It took me just a month and I'd had mature gravel from my other tank to kick-start the process - can take much longer without any mature media to help. 2 weeks is unrealistic. Have you been adding pure ammonia or fishfood to feed the friendly bacteria that will convert the ammonia to nitrItes and then to nitrAtes? If not then you haven't been cycling. If youve added fish at this stage you'll end up doing fish-in cycling with loads of water changes to stop the toxins from harming your fish and that slows the whole prcess down and can take 2-3 months to complete.
Best thing is to read the beginners resource centre articles on cycling. There are articles on both fishless and fish-in altho you've already gone the fish-in route so probably best to read that one first.
For now make sure you test the water at least once daily and do water changes if ammonia or nitrItes are 0.25ppm or above, making sure that the water is temperature matched and using a water conditioner to remove chlorine/chloramine.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Agree with mamashack, and I apologize for my apparently non-sequitur post above. I thought I was replying to a different post. Yikes. 

 

[Mamashack]

It's easily done TOS - I've done it recently too! lol