Platys

[willowstwin]

Hi All

I was thinking about getting some bumble bee platys as part of the new stocking for a 96litre. But I can't find anywhere if platys should be kept in groups, pairs or if they're alright alone.

For example, could I get a pair of bumble bees and a pair of say the red ones? of would I have to have at least 6 bumblebees? do they have to have a set ratio of males to females or are they ok as a pair?

I was thinking about a pair of endlers and a pair of bumblebees...

ARGH it's all so confusing lol

Willow

 

[KittyKat]

Treat them as other livebearers: in small groups at least 2 females per male, in larger groups more equal ratios are ok (larger groups is 20+ fish). So if you want 6, you either need to get all females or all males or 1-2 males and 4-5 females.

I found platys to be social fish, so I would not keep them individually. I also do not recommend pairs, two fish of the same sex would be better. If you want two endlers and two platys, all 4 fish should to be of the same sex.

Colour morphs are irrelevant.

 

[FrogGirl]

Since they are livebearers it's best to have 2 females for every male. I actually am not sure if it's best to have a set number but when I bought mine I went with the assumption they were probably fish that preferred to be in groups of 5 or more so I bought 5. I bought 5 more of a different kind later. I didn't know anything about them when I bought them but as I started to read up I realized I had some out of balance ratios. I am still trying to fix that problem. I have 4 female platys total & 5 males. I'm going to try to take 2 males back into the store soon to even things up a bit. I have noticed though that my golddust platy males only seem to harass the golddust platy females & same goes for my tuxedos.

You might be ok with a pair of each as long as they're all one sex or you make sure you have 1 of each gender (if you don't mind fry). But if you want to be safe go for 1 male & 2 female of each