Platy's Yes Or No?

[guineapigqueen]

I have recently lost my male Betta, clean out his tank and left it to mature for a few weeks. I have added a male and female platy into his tank and apart from them live two snails, I think they came from the plants.

I know the pair will have fly, but will it survive in my tank or shall I place them in a breeding net?

Here is a picture of the tank, when my Betta, lived in it...

Could anyone recommend some live plants to go into the tank, for the fly to hide in?

Thanks Emma

 

[donna123]

hi,
live floating plants do well for fry to hide in,
if you have room a breeding net to bring up the fry is a good way of making sure they wont get eaten, just use a plastic cup when you find a fry and pop in the net, its best to let mum have the fry in the main tank as putting her in the net can cause her to abort, can you fit another female as you should have 2-3 females per male, as males like to mate 24/7 , which can stress females out.
ive used silk plants in my tank for fry and let them survive in the main tank some may get eaten but you always get 1-2 fry survive, esp as fry come every 4 weeks anyway , good luck Donna

 

[guineapigqueen]

I was planning on getting some more platy's at the weekend.
The male I have is red with black fins, the female is mainly black with orange around the end.
I do like the female yellow fading into orange ones so I was hopeing to pick some of them up.

Emma x

 

[theotheragentm]

That tank looks kind of small. How large is it?

Livebearers are best kept in ratios of 3 females to 1 male for the first male and 2:1 after that. This is because males will constantly try to mate with females, driving the female nuts. It basically works the same with humans too. You might want to consider a larger tank.

 

[guineapigqueen]

The tank is a 28 litre tank, 30W x 33D x 38H cm.
I am only keeping the platies in the tank until some fry emerge, then I am going to remove them and rear the fry in the tank, my platies currently live in a Juwel Vision 180. I would leave them in the larger tank, but I know the females can become stressed and loss the fry they are carrying.

Emma x

 

[theotheragentm]

The larger tank is probably better for birthing as more room is better. Be aware that Platies can store sperm and continue to give birth for up to six months. Good luck.

 

[mungo]

The larger tank is probably better for birthing as more room is better. Be aware that Platies can store sperm and continue to give birth for up to six months. Good luck.

I've got many hiding places in my tank. For live - I really like bamboo plants (just the typical kind that you would normally see being sold in any garden store) because they are low maintenance but high value to water. I am also a big fan of fake plants. This fake one in the past I've let loose from the rocks and let it float up top upside down for baby fish to hide in and its work splendidly. Even when I had a smaller tank and higher fish per gallon ratio it worked well.

 

[theotheragentm]

Plants definitely help with the bioload on a tank. I've never actually tried to figure out how well bamboo handles waste. Based on how fast it grows, I suppose it does a decent job handling waste.