Overview of Platy:
Platies are suitable for
beginners because they do not need high care due to their hardy nature. They
are active swimmers & can be found in multiple colors. Platies are popular
& many hobbyists love to keep them in aquariums. They have small size &
many hobbyists keep them in small tanks. Their max. size is just 3 inches.
Platies are best tank mates
because of their peaceful nature. Platies can be very active. They love
swimming in groups.
They love having small peaceful
inhabitants in their community such as mollies, swordtails & guppies. They
are loosely related to them. But they also welcome other peaceful inhabitants
as well.
Category | Rating |
Care Level | Novice |
Nature | Peaceful |
Lifespan | 3 to 5 years |
Size | Up to 3 inches |
Food | Omnivore |
Family | Poeciliidae |
Min. Aquarium Size | 10 gallon |
Aquarium Set-Up | Freshwater, dense vegetation |
Tank Mates | Small size peaceful fish |
Water Temperature & Quality for Platy:
Platies are little tropical fish
found in the rivers of Central America.
Platies are from Mexico &
Central America, so they like to live in warm temperatures b/w 21 to 27 Degrees
Celsius. Using a heater will let them heat water. Make sure your tank is clean
by adding a filter. You must use mechanical & biological filter in your
tank to ensure water is clean & remove toxic chemicals in the water that
releases waste. Adding live plants & decorations can provide hiding spots
to platies & live plants help in natural filtration & it can oxidize
water. Platies love having weak currents with a pH of 6.8 to 8, & water
hardness between 10 to 28 dGH.
Platy Diet:
They love to eat enriched
vegetable diet. Platies like diets such as crustaceans, insects, worms &
live plants. Platies are omnivorous but like eating herbivorous food too.
They love eating most foods from
live, commercially made & vegetables. Provide them a quality flake food. An
enriched vitamin food will provide the best coloration. Provide them small
amounts of diet multiple times every day.
Platies don’t have sword at the
bottom of their tails like swordtails. Both platies & swordtails are
livebearers. Platies are discovered in the east coast of Central America &
southern Mexico. They belong to the Poeciliidae family.
Platies grow to a max length of 7
cm. They are able to have from 20 to 50 baby fish at a time, as often as 1 time
a month. They can eat their fries.
Aquarium Size for Platy:
Platies have small size &
they are suitable for small to medium size tanks. They need at least 10 gallons
of water in aquarium.
Platies are kept mostly in
tropical tanks. Multiple color variations of platies are available such as red,
yellow, orange, blue, rainbow & white.
Platies have bright colors. They have multiple breeds & hybrids which are available in the colors of a rainbow.
They love to swim in small groups
& hide b/w the floating leaves.
Platies are not aggressive in nature. They can jump outside water. Make sure your aquarium has a lid to avoid them from jumping outside.
Platy fish are hard in nature
& can tolerate harsh conditions. Make sure you do regular water changes
with 25 percent water changed every 2 weeks.
Platies need a heavily planted
aquarium which has gravel substrate. Water & temperature requirement is
different a bit depending on the variety of platies you have. Best temperature
for platies is between 70 to 75 Degree Fahrenheit. Platies will show better
colors if you have cooler temperature.
Platies like to have weak
currents with a weak pH of 6.8 to 8 & hardness of water between 10 to 28
dGH.
Platy Tank Mates:
Platies like to swim around in
groups with male platies rarely fight amongst themselves. Best tank mates for
platies are mollies, swordtails & guppies. Platies like to live with other
similar size & temperament species such as Tetras, Corydoras, Characins, Gouramis,
little peaceful barbs & other platies. You can keep shrimps & snails
too.
Make sure you have more female
platies than males. This prevents the female platies from becoming exhausted
while being chased. It is suggested to keep 2 or 3 female to every male platy.
Platy Diet:
Platies are not fussy eaters
& love to eat a variety of vegetable enriched diet. In platies’ natural
habitat, they love to eat small crustaceans, worms, insects & live plants. Platies
are omnivorous species, but they love to eat herbivorous food.
They like to eat majority of
diet, live, commercially made & vegetables. Select a better quality flake
diet.
Offer them once or twice a week
brine shrimp, tubiflex, & worms. Protein enriched food is better for them.
Also you can offer them boiled vegetables for example squash, spinach, cucumber
& vegetable supplements including spirulina are good food.
If you feed them vitamin enriched
food, then it can show better colors in your platies.
Feed them small quantities of
diet multiple times every day. Offer them food that platies can eat within 3
minutes.
Platy Fish Care:
Platies are little tough species
that do not get illnesses quickly. But they can get common problems for example
ich & fin rot.
It is a bit difficult to spot
illnesses in a fish especially in early stages. Make sure you give some time
monitoring their appearance & behavior or some flukes on the body &
skin of fish. If you spot such issues early, then it will be simple to cure
them.
Ich is one of the common illness.
It causes white spots on the body, gills & fins of fish & such
parasites are not very difficult to treat. If such illness is not treated
early, then it is responsible for severe infections & cause respiratory
damage. You can raise temperature of water, or use medicines to cure it.
Fin Rot is caused due to
bacterial infection on the tail or fin of fish. Antibiotics are the top choices
for curing fin rot. Adding them with food can help cure your fish.
Make sure you have best water
quality & better diet to avoid these illnesses. If you lower stress on your
fish, then it is helpful & it can be done by offering the best environment
for the fish. If your fish are stressed, then it might get ill quickly.
It is better to cure illnesses by
cleaning & quarantining anything that you add to your fish tank, such as
fish, plants, gravels & any decoration you are adding to your aquarium.
Breeding Platy:
Platies are live bearers &
they do not lay eggs outside in water but keep them in their bodies until they
are hatched & their fries are out swimming free in water.
Platies are prolific breeders. It
is easy to breed them after adding males & females in same aquarium. It is
difficult to spot male & female platy until they are around 4 months old. When
platies reach this stage, then it is easy to spot the gender.
Platies have a common problem of
eating their babies, so it is recommended to add them to a breeding tank which
contains about 10 to 20 gallons of water with better filter.
Offer multiple hiding spots to
your platies with dense plants so that they can find better shelter.
Platies can have up to 80 babies
at once. Female platies are usually pregnant for about 24 to 30 days before
they give birth to fries. Their fries can swim when they are out of mother body
& they can eat variety of diets such as egg yolk, flakes & other baby
diet.
How to Recognize Pregnant Platy:
It is simple to find pregnant
platy because its abdomen becomes quite large & if the female platy skin is
transparent enough then you will be able to see a couple of black eyes. She
will also show a black mark on her abdomen.
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