Are my platies about to do the do?!

[mandimoron]

I did an extra large water change today, and immediately after I refilled the tank, I noticed a couple of my red spotted platies acting a little strangely. One is a boy and the other is a girl, obviously, or I wouldn't be fearful of being visited by the Great Platy Fry Horde of Doom.

I've been trying to capture an image of them in the process of their weird little dance, but so far I haven't had any luck. They flare their fins out as much as they can, and chase each other nose-to-tail in ever-shrinking circles. They also don't swim upright like normal, but rather lean to the side, so that their bellies are closest to each other. I haven't actually seen them copulate, though, as any time they get very close to each other, one or the other (though usually the male) will suddenly nip at the other. Then they repeat the whole process. Hopefully that description is clear enough, but I'll keep trying with the webcam.

Does this sound like mating behaviour? My only real concern is the nipping-- I don't like to see my little guys not getting along! Is it normal for platy mates to act this way? My boyfriend has suggested that perhaps platies just "like it rough". :laugh:

 

[kveeti]

My boyfriend has suggested that perhaps platies just "like it rough". :laugh:

Well, you know, with the purple string references always going on at AC, I couldn't resist.

Sounds like you'll soon be a mama. Though my experience with livebearers (mostly guppies) is that the female tries more to avoid the male rather than play along.

 

[Aqualung]

Yup, prepare yourself for fry. With platies it's pretty much gauranteed that you'll get fry if you have both sexes (or in some cases, even if you just have females).

 

[mandimoron]

:soda: @ kveeti's pic! That's awesome!

My amourous platies seemed to have relaxed for the time being... I'm excited at the prospect of having wee platy-lets! I've been keeping the little dudes since October, and it's only been for the past couple of weeks that I've started to see suspiciously naughty behaviour. Maybe IU should stop leering at the tank and give them some privacy. >_>

I suppose then that there's no reason for concern over the nipping, which is good. They didn't look like they were really being overly aggressive, but still-- I've never seen my fish have a go at anything that wasn't edible before!

 

[lucas68]

It sounds like you are going to have the same problem I have;
What the heck do I do with all these darn fish?
These fish can store sperm for many months and can keep getting pregnant without a daddy fish. I still have many young platys and I’m out of people to dump them off on (except my friend with the piranha). My LFS doesn’t even want any more.

If you want them to have good, happy lives, I recommend getting the daddy fish out of there. He will eat the babies when they are born. Mom will also try, but it’s not as easy for to get them (insert picture of fish swimming in circles trying to eat its own tail). I also recommend java moss. When the babies are born, they hide in the java moss and eat it until they are big enough to eat flakes. I also doubled the filtration on the tank to assist with the extra bio-load caused by the babies.

This is just what I do and it works like a charm. I hope you have lots of little baby platys.

 

[Z Man]

Just for infromation, livebearers do not copulate. The male stays very close to the female and releases his 'milt' in the direction of the female and she just receives it.