When will they be old enough?

[foxgirl158]

My platy fry are now around 4 weeks old. I'm planning a tank at my high school library that I want to move 4 males into once they are a little bigger. However, I can't currently tell which are male and which are female. When will I be able to start telling the gender and when will the females start being able to have fry? I'll probably want to separate the males and females as soon as I'm able to tell, because I don't want fry from the females.

 

[Colin_T]

if they are fed well the males can start to be identified around 2-3 months. If they aren't fed well, it could be 6 months

 

[foxgirl158]

if they are fed well the males can start to be identified around 2-3 months. If they aren't fed well, it could be 6 months

I’m feeding them a combination of baby brine shrimp, tetra tropical flakes, and bug bites. Not all at once, I rotate out the flakes and bug bites.

 

[Colin_T]

Feed them 3-5 times a day.

Each feeding should start with dry foods, then frozen foods, then finish with live baby brineshrimp.

Feed them as much as they can eat. You want them to be fat and look like pregnant guppies.

 

[emeraldking]

Like Colin has already mentioned, the age of those platies will differ when visible gender characteristics will show up. Variables such as temperature, food, water flow and genetics are in play when it comes to the growth pace.