Breed and Care for Platies

Platies are wonderful beginner fish. They are live-bearers and are very hardy. Platies come in a wide variety of colors that spice up any community tank.

Steps

Setting Up Your Tank

  1. If you are setting up a new tank, get a filter, a heater and some stones.
  2. Determine how many Platies you want or can fit in your tank without over crowding the tank. The general rule is {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} of fish per gallon of tank water. Size your tank based on the ADULT size of the fish, not their CURRENT size. Platies get up to {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} long as adults. These fish also like to be kept in a group of 3 or more so your minimum tank size is 9 gallons.
  3. Learn about the cycling process. You should do a fishless cycle.

Getting Your Platies

  1. Get suitable food and make sure that you don't put aggressive fish in with your platies.
  2. Add one or two fish to start with. Wait several weeks between small batches of fish until your tank is fully stocked.
  3. Select the big, colorful platies because this is a sign that they are healthy.
  4. If you want fry (baby fish), get 2 to 3 females for every male. This reduces aggression in males and stress in females.
  5. If you don't want fry, only get one gender. Be careful, though- females may already be pregnant when you purchase them.
  6. Once you have brought the fish home, place the unopened bag in the tank for 15 minutes to get them used to the temperature. Open the bag and pour a little of the new tank water into the bag and wait another 15 mins. Carefully submerge the bag, then gently and slowly pour the fish out of the bag in to the tank. The pet store's water might rarely carry a disease, but if that is the case the fish will already have the disease; There is no need to be paranoid about pet store water, if in doubt you can perform a large water change as soon as 24 hours after the new fish have settled.

Taking Care of Your New Fish

  1. Feed small amounts once a day.
  2. Change 25% of your water at least once a week and DO NOT change the filters as instructed on the package. Even though the filter package says to change it, if you change your filter pad your tank will cycle again, killing some of your fish Change filter carbon once per month.
  3. If your water is cloudy, change 20% of your water more often, even once a day, until it clears up the tank

Breeding Platies and Care for Fry

  1. If you have 2 or 3 females for every male, chances are, the females will get pregnant. There is no way to induce mating but you can tell if they are pregnant if they are getting fatter.
  2. Keep in mind that it takes about 4-5 weeks for the fish to have live babies.
  3. Look to see if you find that a female is very close to having babies. If so you can put her in a plastic breeder or net which will separate the babies (fry) from the rest the fish. Once she has given birth to all of them, this could be 20-50+ babies, remove the mother.
  4. Carefully transport fry to a 5+ gallon, aerated tank with a bubble filter or you don't have to have a filter but replace water 100% every week and make sure that the water is the same temperature. Make sure it does not have a power filter because fry will get sucked up.
  5. Feed the fry. You can give them finely powdered fish food or specialty fry food 3-4 times a day. Live food is best (freshly hatched baby brine shrimp) will ensure good quality fish and bright colours.
  6. When they are large enough to eat regular food, you can put them in your main tank, again avoiding overcrowding. Platies that are {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} long are large enough to place with adults.

Tips

  • Most pet-stores post on the tank if the fish are aggressive, semi-aggressive, or community fish. Always do your own research before mixing species, though; stores have been known to make mistakes.
  • You can tell the gender of the fish by looking at the fin between their abdomen and their tail fin. Males have a gonopodium, a modified fin that is thin and pointy. If the fin is triangle-shaped it is a female.
  • Look for fish with more vibrant eye colors because generally the more vibrant the eye color on a fish the healthier it is. Also do not buy fish that have any obvious fungal infections or share a tank with one that does.
  • The larger your aquarium the more stable the water parameters will be day to day, and week by week, you will still need to perform regular water changes but you will be infinitely less likely to run into problems.
  • Whenever you add water to your tank, make sure you de-chlorinate it.
  • Keep in groups of 3 or more, these are social fish and will both suffer stress related illnesses and fail to breed if they are unhappy.
  • Don't buy your baby plays from a fish mill. Adopt your plates from a rescue and stop senseless purebred platymilling.

Warnings

  • Fish take up time and money. Make a commitment to care for your fish, just as you would any other animal.
  • Plastic breeders can cause complication in birth and with circulation of water. Look for a net breeder or a plastic one with ventilation.

Things You'll Need

For Platies

  • 9+ gallon tank, depending on how many fish you want
  • Tropical fish food (flakes, pellets, blood worms, brine shrimp, mosquito lave, cucumber, potato etc...)
  • Water filter to accommodate size of tank
  • Heater
  • Aerator
  • Tank gravel or sand, décor, and plants (fake and/or real)
  • A local fish store

For Fry (if you want to breed)

  • {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} tank
  • Aerator
  • Tank gravel, décor and/or plants (real and/or fake)
  • Special fry food, optional but advised
  • Plastic or net breeder, optional

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