Too Many Fry. Any Advice Please?

[scorpiogreen]

When I bought my first fish my lfs advised that I would not have any issues with hoards of new young fish. They said you need very near perfect conditions before any young are born and they will not survive without being separated into special fry tanks.
 
Ten days after purchasing my new platies and one has produced a small number of fry (3). Now 4 weeks on all 3 have survived and I am expecting them to reach maturity. This is great as a one off occurrence but I am afraid for the future. My lfs will not take any fry from me even free of charge.
 
I am now considering buying a small tank and segregating them so as I have one sex in my community tank and the opposite sex in my small tank. I have 4 females, 2 males and 3 unidentified fry. I understand that females may already be pregnant or could be retaining sperm to make themselves pregnant at a later date.
 
Does it make much odds which sex I keep in the community and which go in the smaller tank?
Is it okay to add more fish to the separate tank as and when new fry appear as I have heard that you should buy all fish of one species at a time because they will not be accepted by the shoal otherwise?
 
At the moment I have a 64 litre tank with just the platies in. I intend to add some pentazona barb and a couple of peacock gobies a while later. Perhaps my intended next fish would eat any new fry whilst they are still very young and my dilemma will resolve itself naturally?
 
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thank you

 

[Baccus]

Since the fish are platties and I would be guessing that the females are just as pretty as the males (most females are) I would keep the group of females in the community tank and find a way of rehoming the males. Male platties like all live bearer males are sex orintated and even without females of thier own species they will still try to mate with other fish and harass them. Even with the females still popping out the odd batch of fry the females are pretty good at scoffing their own offspring if you dont keep saving them. Sure you may get one or two survivors but not 20+ which platties are capable of producing.
 
If a school/ shoal of fish is in the habit of being in a group then generally new arrivals are not an issue. There maybe some sorting out of pecking orders as the heirachy gets a shuffle but things will settle down again. The only fish that I know of real aggression to new tank members is many of the cichlids and some loach species. But tetras, guppies, platties etc its usually the more the merrier.