Still Confused About Platys

[Betta5]

Hi, Im now not sure if what they have are gravid spots. At first i thought it was females with gonopodiums but now im not sure. I think they might just be their stomachs now. These are my first platies and its harder to tell that guppies.

Please ignore watermarks... I didnt even notice them... shame on me lol

They are fast so sorry about blurs

Ideas?

 

[OldMan47]

I can't tell what you have with the first picture. Most of the rest of the pictures are males. Try these pictures so that you can learn to tell them apart easily. They are another species that shows its sex in the same way.

A male

A female of the same species

The pictures are a bit grainy because the fish are both less than an inch long when full grown but I hope they clearly show how to sex poeciliids.

 

[shi24137]

5th picture is a definate male. females have 2 sets of anal fins. they have 2 fins and then one "fanned" fin in back just before the tail fin. the males have 2 fins and then one "long" fin before the tail fin. in my profile theres a link to my myspace if you want to check out my platies

 

[Betta5]

im confused because I have seen that females can recieve to much testostrone(sp) in the womb(?) and develop a gonopodium, and all of my fish have what looks to me like a gravid spot which is why im so confused.

 

[OldMan47]

The slight darkened spot on an almost transparent platy is not a gravid spot. Because the fish is almost transparent, you can see its internal organs, which do have a darker color to them than much of its flesh. All newborn livebearers, with rare exception, take on the appearance of a female, with the fan shaped anal fin. Until the fish begin to develop sexually, it can seem like a drop is all females until they begin to mature. I have seen stories of commercial breeders of some fish giving them hormones to develop the colors of a male, because in those species the females are very plain and it lets them sell more fish, but I am not aware of it being done with any livebearers. It would be pointless with a platy since a female and a male are equally colorful.

 

[Betta5]

Ahhh cool, I thought it looked like organs but wasn't sure. So i have 3 males and 1 female (not pic'd). They seem to court eachother most likely being male and competing, and leave her alone but I will defo get some more females just incase they are over mating her.

thanks for the help

 

[helterskelter]

Here is a pic of a male platy.
If they gave a gonopodium their male.

Gravid spot's are never 100% sure way, some females don't develop them either, due to body colour.
Or like your self, same males may develop something similar.

Also it's always best to out number the males as they can get very persistent over females, so having a ratio of 2 females to each males is always best.