Striped Platies

[joshua]

saw them at the LFS and they costed a whooping 8 bucks each as compared to 50cents per norm platy. the owner said that they are wild caught and are south american and thus require diff water conditions from norm platies (acidic instead of slightly alkaline) i wanted to get them but the price put me off. could almost get 2 rams for that price.

 

[Sinuhe]

Are they really Platies, or some other sort of livebearers?

 

[guppymonkey]

Its strange that the pet store owner would say that they need acidic water when platies are from alkaline water. Platies, swordtails and guppies all come from hard water areas along the coast usually. They are not a deep jungle species which would be acidic from all the leaves rotting in the amazon rivers. I wonder if they are a different species of livebearer that was labelled wrong. Or if the owner was just simply wrong about them. If you can get a picture I would like to see, they sound really interesting!

 

[Juggernaut22988]

Well, that is near the price of a platy where I live
It is about 4.99 for one

But $8 if hefty.... I can buy a small oscar!

Yea, I would also like to see a pic

 

[BettaBoyz]

did this 'Striped' Platy have tiger-type stripes, or horizontal bars?

the Variatus Platy is a sort of 'striped' Platy. i have a larger female who is grey with orange fins and dull, thin gold and green horizontal stripes along her body. my dad actually mistook her for a wild-type Swordtail before i showed him the pics of an *identical* Variatus Platy. perhaps what you saw was a Variatus? the only difference in them in color patterns (they've been bred to look wild) the males get larger, and they can survive in cooler temperatures (down to 55*)

they definately aren't worth $8, perhaps a buck more than the regular Platy price.

 

[Juggernaut22988]

I saw some of these platies and they were the same price as the other platies (all mixed in a tank) at the lfs

The store owner said that they get them imported form mexico

 

[mike777]

Wow 8 dollars is a lot! I bought 3 swordatils today (very,very pretty ones) for 6 bucks. I could also buy a small oscar for about 8 dollars.

 

[Juggernaut22988]

I am going to check some other lfs to ask if they carry the "striped platy"