Will Different Platys Breed Easily?

[supaplums]

Hi,

New to the forum and thought of my first question. I have a 29 gal tank with 7 Platys in it. 2 Red Wag males and 5 different females. Blue, MM, Sunset, Gold, and White. Will the Red Wags mate easily with these females or do I have to get similar males? Another question: I have always just let my fish breed naturally in the community tank. I provide lots of hiding places for fry and many make it to "adulthood". The reason that is in quotations is that although my fish get to be 5 or more months old, they are of small size. Do I need to change the food or temp to get them bigger? Right now I just feed the adult fish and the fry get the droppings. Flake food only. As of tonight, I just got some frozen foods for them. Bloodworm and brine shrimp. Hope this helps! Any answers would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Mark. There are several questions here.
Aquarium strains of platies are all the same except for color and fin shapes. They will all breed with each other.
Fry need plenty of good quality food to grow quickly. Simple flake will have them all survive and grow but leftovers of nothing but flake will not produce rapid growth. As in all animals, variety is the key to good growth. One of the better main foods for growth is baby brine shrimp but regardless of the main food, you must feed a variety of foods. Platies are somewhat vegetarian in nature so don't forget the algae type foods too.
Frequent water changes are a must to continue to get good growth. If you are feeding enough for the fish to grow quickly, the water quality will degrade and frequent water changes are needed to restore the water quality and keep the fry growth going well.
Another key to good growth is exercise. It is a factor often ignored. There is a reason that commercial fish farms, in earlier time, used long trough shaped rearing ponds to grow their fish. Although these days ponds are much bigger and often rounder than they were 50 years ago, the swimming distance available to the fry is still quite long. Nobody tries to rear lots of fry fast in a short container, even the smallest are many feet across. A 29 gallon is plenty for fish health and for normal day to day care for adults but is not much room to develop muscle tone by swimming sprints with their age mates. One way to make a small tank bigger is give give it a lot of water flow so that the fry can swim upstream as it were.

 

[supaplums]

Thanks for the info! I hope everything turns out.

Thanks for the info! I hope everything turns out.