Platies not mating

[Aquarius0015]

Platies were the first fish introduced to my 12 gallon which I set up a few days before x-mas. I heard that males might get aggressive with females (the 1-3 ratio) but I have two females and two males, and have never seen any aggression except over food. In fact, I have not seen any breeding-type action at all. The platies each go their separate ways. How long is the adjustment period before platies start getting friendly with each other?

I want some fry to feed my bettas, because frozen food is sort of expensive and messy. And if any survive, eh, I can handle a little bit more in terms of stocking. My stepdad wants more fish anyway, I can raise a few fry and donate them to the family tank.

[kveeti]

I've never known any livebearers to need any adjustment period. Were males/females in separate tanks at the store? Chances are the females are already pregnant.

[NatakuTseng]

I agree with Kve, if they weren't already pregnant, they most likely are now. With Livebearers they can look like they are just swimming close together, but actually be breeding. Most of the time with them, in my own opinion, all male live bearers think about is Food and Females to put it lightly.

[Aquarius0015]

Well one of them *was* pregnant. I had her in a net breeder (before I had a clear breeder's trap) when she got really fat. But one day I came back from running errands and she was small again, so I assume she ate her babies. Currently neither female looks pregnant, but maybe they are not "showing" yet. How long between mating and birth?

I bought a male guppy and 2 females today. Are guppies equally, more, or less prolific breeders compared to platies? Do they have a similar period of gestation?