Breeding Platy?

Hunter555

Hunter555

Ninja!
Sep 19, 2004
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Sydney
I've got 4 Redwag Platy and I'm just wondering if they are trying to breed...

One of them is really fat. There is another one that is rather small compared to the other 3. It also has almost clear fins where the others are all black. I'm guessing this smaller one is a male? Well this little one (male?) with clear fins follows the really fat one around everywhere and attacks like crazy the other two if they swim anywhere near the pair.

So does this mean they are trying to breed? This is normal behaivour?
 
Hi there, I adore platys, it's nice to meet another livebearer fan!
If you take a close look at your fish, you can sex them by the shape of their anal fins - femails have a fan / wedge shaped fin, and males have a sword shaped fin - it's called the gonopodium, and it's used to deposit sperm into the female.
The 'really fat one' is likely a female, she's probably pregnant (platy females almost always are), and males are often smaller than females of the same age but that's not a reliable way to sex them.
One thing to note, the ideal ratio of males to females is 1:2 or more - if you have an even number of each, or more males than females, females may be chased to the point of exhaustion or even death by randy males.
 
Thanks, I sexed them tonight. I've got 3 females and 1 male. The male seems to guard one female and chase the others when they come near. Even though one of the others looks pregnant too!

Good thing I've got 3 females because the little male is nuts!
So how long before I start to see little platies everywhere? :D
 
if they are pregnant you can tell by looking at the are were they poop at because they usually have a black dot where you actually see the eyes of the fry
 
phanmc said:
Actually, if the male appears to be harassing another female he's probably trying to mate with it as well.
Click to expand...


The weird thing is he just seems to chase them away from the female he follows. Once they get far enough away from his gal then ge goes back to her and continues to peacefully follow her. :D Crazy little platies!
 
WOOO! We have 1 baby platy!

I think the others got eaten but this one is extra quick. They are trying to eat it but no baby fish for you platy!

Do they all get born at once or does it take a while?
 
Congratulations! :D
Usually they have all their fry in one go, but I've had females that have only one or two, then wait a bit and have another few.
If you don't want the fry to become tasty snacks you might want to consider getting a breeder net to hang inside the tank. You can catch fry (do it very very gently!) by siphoning them into a container and then pouring the water with the fry back into the net. Don't put too many in - the nets are small and fry need room to move around - and make sure they get lots to eat (finely crushed flakes work really well) and you won't believe how fast they grow up. Alternately if your tank is heavily planted (live or plastic, makes no difference to the fish) some fry will probably survive without any help.
 
The Platy is very easy to breed. Platys will give birth to 20 to 40 fry when spawning. It is reported that one should keep plenty of plants for babies to hide in or the parents may eat them.

... so just look out when and if they breed. You might have more than you wanted! :p
 
I had the problem of a 29gl tank getting overcrowded because my mama platty would not stop having babies. I need to put her on birth control until I get a bigger tank.
 
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