Surfacing Platies

[zimmermanem]

I have three sunburst wag platies and they seem to be spending most of their time near the surface. I have not noticed this behavior before. I keep up with regular water changes and have an external filter that creates plenty of surface agitation, so I don't think that it is an oxygen problem. I am, however, cutting back on their food because they were getting to be fatties. Do any of you have experience with begging fish?

I am not starving them, they are still getting plenty

 

[helterskelter]

sounds like normal behavior to me, also if their getting very fat then expect fry epically if their females

 

[dzsigmond217]

I'm having the same situation..
hanging out on top ,begging for food
and boy oh boy..are two of them big bellied.
How would I know if they are girls?

 

[boardy]

I have this same thing happening at the moment with my platy. They aren't any fatter so I just guessed it was normal.

Sexing the platies is pretty easy to be honest. Females will be longer, and also have wider stomachs (even when not pregnant) than males. The second method (and most accurate) involves observing the three fins on the underbelly of the fish. Female Platy’s will have three almost identical fins, two a little further up the belly (closer to the front) than the rear, and with a male, the two frontal fins will be the same, but the aft fin will be much smaller, and pointed.

Hope it helps.

Adam

 

[Colin_T]

Platies and other livebearers are surface dwellers. They naturally hang around the top of the tank. They are also well domesticated fish that know the hand of god, well they know who feeds them. If they are pregnant them give them as much as they can eat. You get bigger batches with more young from a well fed female.

To sex platies have a look at the bottom fin just before the tail, it's called the anal fin. In females the anal fin will be fan or triangular shaped. In males it will be straight and thin.

The male's anal fin is called a gonopodium and is used to transfer sperm packets to the female during mating.