guppies and platies

It has been one of those weeks, I have notice that just about all my anacharis has now melted away, I no longer have any in my tetra tanks and much of what I had in my guppy and shrimp tank is gone too. I went to the LFS yesterday and they can not even special order it. So I picked up a pair of platy and put them in my plant/shrimp tank for QT. I only have one ghost shrimp left after the other one was found dead earlier this weekMy guppies are having plenty of fry most of which are orange like their parents. So I started my tank water exchange for my two 29 gallon tanks today. I was carefully vacuuming my guppy tank when I saw my first male fancy guppy dead on the bottom. I had seen him swimming happily the day before. So I did a major water exchange and test everything alright. I then started Vacuuming my shrimp tank and suddenly noticed platy fry. I was able to catch 2 and after carefully going through the waste water found 6 more. There were at least 2 more in the tank but I stopped at 8. I set up a fry net for them. I tried to take pictures but it was a blurry mess. Will try later.

Here is the pair of platys I bought yesterday, I am thinking of calling them George and Martha in honor of the Forth of July.

Retired Viking said:

Here is the pair of platys I bought yesterday, I am thinking of calling them George and Martha in honor of the Forth of July.

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I think of Denis the Menace with those names. Love it!

But definitely keep another female, males can harass the females

Guppies and platies can be kept in one tank together perfectly...

emeraldking said:

Guppies and platies can be kept in one tank together perfectly...

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I was going to add them to the guppy LOTR castle tank after a week or two of QT in the shrimp tank

I recently went to a pond place near my house and they had mostly pond plants but they had alot of anacharis that was very healthy and like 2 or 3 feet long and it was super cheap. If you find a pond place near you I would see if they have it.

Derekshatch said:

I recently went to a pond place near my house and they had mostly pond plants but they had alot of anacharis that was very healthy and like 2 or 3 feet long and it was super cheap. If you find a pond place near you I would see if they have it.

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Thanks, it was easy to find before C-19 but now it and most plants are hard to find here, I can not even get salvinia. I may end up going out to some of the local ponds and collect some duckweed. I had such beautiful long anacharis but not now, I have just a few small stems

Retired Viking said:

Here is the pair of platys I bought yesterday, I am thinking of calling them George and Martha in honor of the Forth of July.

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Great idea!!!!!

I also never seem to have enough floating plants when I need them, I will have to think about pond supplies locally!

I have a tank of platys (red wag and hifin variatus sunset and greens, some with mickey mouse markings. Red wags never seem to have babies!! I will have to gets some pics

LarsB said:

I also never seem to have enough floating plants when I need them, I will have to think about pond supplies locally!

I have a tank of platys (red wag and hifin variatus sunset and greens, some with mickey mouse markings. Red wags never seem to have babies!! I will have to gets some pics

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The 8 fry in the fry net seem to be doing well, I put in some ground up flakes and they seemed to like it. I saw the two free fry still swimming around. They are very quick for their tiny size. Wish I had more plants in that tank for them to hide. I got rid of all my plastic plants, I guess I should have kept a few.

LarsB said:

I also never seem to have enough floating plants when I need them, I will have to think about pond supplies locally!

I have a tank of platys (red wag and hifin variatus sunset and greens, some with mickey mouse markings. Red wags never seem to have babies!! I will have to gets some pics

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I've got TONS of floaters. PM me if interested

TheTenthDoctor said:

I've got TONS of floaters. PM me if interested

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I can grow hornwort in spurts, same with duckweed! but water sprite or guppy grass, not much ..may be my water

Retired Viking said:

Thanks, it was easy to find before C-19 but now it and most plants are hard to find here, I can not even get salvinia. I may end up going out to some of the local ponds and collect some duckweed. I had such beautiful long anacharis but not now, I have just a few small stems

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I concur that plants are hard to find, I went to my LFS and there wasn't much. She got me a bit of eloeda from a display tank but said she'd been told to sell it sparingly. Apparently air freight costs are un-viable. Why doesn't anyone supply plants from within the UK???