problem platy...

[Magnum Man]

so I have a gorgeous line bred male High fin sunset platy...


it has been paired with 3 similar females, all of which have died ( I'm assuming he harasses them to death ) they have been in my cherry shrimp tank, which is behind my main tank group, so not easily viewed... the shrimp are doing well, and this male has been here, since tank set up, probably just less than 2 years...

since that hasn't been going well, except feeding the shrimp, with dead fish, I moved him to my "dump tank" which has my wild type swords in it, among other fish... he doesn't seem to bother any of the other fish, yet... I understand he may try to mate with the swords, when they reach maturity... but for a couple days, he's not bothering anyone... how likely is it to create problems, as the swords mature, either challenging the male, or cross breed with the females???

I may try adding another female platy or two, as this is a much bigger tank( 65 gallon, verses a 10 gallon, his previous tank ), along with the mixed population, including cull sailfin mollies...

also showing off my newest anubias pot... however the plant came in froze... rhizomes are green, seeing if it will come back, but suspect I'll have to order new,?when it warms up..

 

[emeraldking]

An interbreeding between this platy and your female swords is a potential given. No guarantees that he won't be trying to mate with those swords. But if it's a submissive male, than the chance of a crossbreed will be lower.

I can't see those anubias in these two pics...

 

[Back in the fold]

That’s a cool Platy . I keep.hearing about how Platy’s are so prolific but I’m not seeing it with mine . They’re slowly dwindling. Now my Endler’s / Guppies are another story . They are fruitful and multiplying prodigiously .

 

[gwand]

I have a multigenerational colony of dwarf red coral platy going on three years. They live in a 29 gallon tank with a two year old colony of yellow tiger Endlers, a single 11 month old Molly and a single albino paradise fish I bought two months ago. The pace of seeing the emergence of fry is slow due to predation. I sold ten platy this morning and have about ten platy left. To reduce predation on the platy fry I recently started putting pregnant females in their own 10 gallon tank. After the birthing I transfer the mothers back to the main tank.

 

[GaryE]

I have my sentimental tank of platys. Not long ago, I saw a few throwbacks in a mixed platy tank - an old line I kept and loved when I was a kid. I spent hours admiring that morph in my small, anacharis choked childhood tanks. It was sold as the speckled platy, with an orange body, green near the head and speckles. It was smaller than modern platys - with less X. helleri swordtail mixed in, I assume.

I bought the likely looking ones, and they grew out pleasingly smaller than the standard pet store ones.

I prioritized breeding them as I find pet shop platys often short lived, and I was right there. I got a few of my old friends in the young. I knew in a mixed tank there'd be other looks in the fry, and there were. None were standard fancy ones I see in stores. I bet the wholesaler thought he was ripping the inexperienced store off by sending them pond/feeder plays at full cost.

I've put the ones that appear as I want in a 10 with 4 sprigs of Limnophila - my 1960s tank. It has a corner box filter. If I could see it in black and white, it'd be authentic, since I'm sure that when I was a kid, I had the colour vision of a dog. That's what the photos say, and you guys say photos or it wasn't true.

They are no problem to breed in single species tanks. They haven't become less prolific in time. This first generation born here (they already have young) grew very fast and very robust, although for now, still the size I was hoping for. We'll see how that works out by the end of the summer.

 

[Innesfan]

Adding to the above, while your swordtails are descended from wild stock and thus pure, your platy, as is the case with all commercial platy strains, possesses a lot of swordtail blood. Yours especially based on the elongated body outine alone, plus that it is a hi-fin, a trait that first emerged in swordtails and then introduced to platies via swordtail/platy crosses.. All by way of saying there is less of a 'difference' species-wise between your swords and your platy/sword making it a bit more likely for them to mate.

 

[emeraldking]

Yours especially based on the elongated body outine alone

This platy has got a more stretched body shape not because there's a possible swordtail influence but this is coming from the Xiphophorus variatus. Variatus platies have this body shape by themselves.