Only female platies?

[danas90]

Oh and my original question still stands - when the ammonia is back down to 0 ppm, can I get one or two female platies or do I need to get a male or male and female platies to be with the one I have?

 

[Roan Art]

Oh and my original question still stands - when the ammonia is back down to 0 ppm, can I get one or two female platies or do I need to get a male or male and female platies to be with the one I have?

When the ammonia AND nitrites are down to 0 AND nitrates are about ~10ppm, yes, then you can get one or more. If you don't want babies, 2 females. If you want or don't care, then 1 male and 1 female. Try to keep ratios of two girls for every boy.

You know how boys are!

Roan

 

[danas90]

I apologize for my tone, however there was a lot of misinformation being posted in this thread and I wanted to get your attention

Hey, it's fine - I understand

Are you using a strip test or test tube kit? The strip tests are not very accurate. Pick up a test tube kit as soon as you can.

I'm already using a test tube kit!

Or pick up a Python. It connects right to your tap. I love mine. I'm filling a 75g tank while I type

Good idea, but my tap water comes from a well, and the pH is quite high - around 8.6 - so I need to treat it before putting it into the tank.

Do as much as it takes to keep the ammonia and nitrites at 0. Once you start to show around 10 nitrates, and 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites, your tank is cycled.

Hmm... I'm just suprised because I had the first group of three tetras in there for so long, I would've expected the tank to have cycled by the time I got the new fish.



Also, after doing the water change, the tetras seem MUCH happier, they're swimming around everywhere and are definitely doing better. However, the platy still it just layin around near the bottom - in fact, if she wasn't upright and moving her fins, and didn't fly to the top of the tank whenever I opened the hood, I would believe her dead. Could it just be that she really is depressed/bored/etc. because she is alone, or do different fish have higher or lower tolerances to ammonia levels?

Oh and sorry about that post that I did a few minutes ago, I didn't see that you had posted until I had sent it.

 

[danas90]

When the ammonia AND nitrites are down to 0 AND nitrates are about ~10ppm, yes, then you can get one or more. If you don't want babies, 2 females. If you want or don't care, then 1 male and 1 female. Try to keep ratios of two girls for every boy.

You know how boys are!

Roan

Yea it seems that you keep responding whilst I'm typing another reply... so anyways:
If I do decide to go with a male and thus many fry, what exactly would I need to do with the fry? could I sell them to the pet store or what? I don't really want to just leave them in there as munchies for the other fish...

 

[danas90]

Ehhhhhhhh Why Can't It Be Simple????????

Okay well I just fed the inhabitants of the ammonia-overwhelmed tank, and (after realizing that there was food at the top of the tank) the platy grabbed a piece of food, spit it out, grabbed another, spit it out, and continued in this behaviour testing several other food flakes. She has always enjoyed feeding and hasn't seemed to have any problems with the flakes, why is she not eating them now? Any ideas?

 

[Roan Art]

IME she's sick or getting sick. More than likely the high ammonia has taken its toll on her and her health is degrading.

Is she swimming funny or in a listless manner (even slightly) or does she look kinda pale at all? Eyes look even larger than usual?

I've not had this happen with a platy, but I've had this happen a few times with rainbowfish. They are very sensitive to water conditions and sometimes during shipping they just don't quite make it.

Platys IMO are much hardier in this regard than rainbows. IF you can get her to eat, that would be good. Try offering her frozen/thawed blood worms or brine shrimp. Other than that, I don't know. I haven't had much sucess once a fish starts acting like that, BUT, like I said, those were rainbowfish not platys.

Hopefully someone can advise better.

Roan

 

[danas90]

IME she's sick or getting sick. More than likely the high ammonia has taken its toll on her and her health is degrading.

Is she swimming funny or in a listless manner (even slightly) or does she look kinda pale at all? Eyes look even larger than usual?

I've not had this happen with a platy, but I've had this happen a few times with rainbowfish. They are very sensitive to water conditions and sometimes during shipping they just don't quite make it.

Platys IMO are much hardier in this regard than rainbows. IF you can get her to eat, that would be good. Try offering her frozen/thawed blood worms or brine shrimp. Other than that, I don't know. I haven't had much sucess once a fish starts acting like that, BUT, like I said, those were rainbowfish not platys.

Hopefully someone can advise better.

Roan

Well this morning when I fed them, she did go to the top and nabbed and *swallowed?* several flakes. But then, after eating a couple, she did that same thing she was doing with them last night...

And she appears to be swimming fine, as far as I can tell - but as I said, she seems to be just staying in one place almost all the time, so she's not really swimming around except for feeding time. her colors seems norma and her eyes appear normal (as far as I can tell, i've never exactly examined them closely...)

As far as the brine shrimp/bloodworms, I would get them... but my family is vegetarian and my mom is hardcore against even feeding MY FISH any food including animals... :argue: Ehhhhhhhhhh!

Well anwyays, thanks for all your help Roan, and I'll get back to you on the status of the platy and the water conditions as soon as I have an update.

Dana

 

[Roan Art]

Well this morning when I fed them, she did go to the top and nabbed and *swallowed?* several flakes. But then, after eating a couple, she did that same thing she was doing with them last night...

If she ate at all, that's a great sign!

And she appears to be swimming fine, as far as I can tell - but as I said, she seems to be just staying in one place almost all the time, so she's not really swimming around except for feeding time. her colors seems norma and her eyes appear normal (as far as I can tell, i've never exactly examined them closely...)

Hrm, let's just hope she starts to improve.

As far as the brine shrimp/bloodworms, I would get them... but my family is vegetarian and my mom is hardcore against even feeding MY FISH any food including animals... :argue: Ehhhhhhhhhh!

I understand how your mom feels, but that's not good for animals at all. I hope you don't have any cats because they can go blind if placed on an all vegetarian diet. N/M, I suspect I'm preaching to someone who already knows but can't do anything about it

Well anwyays, thanks for all your help Roan, and I'll get back to you on the status of the platy and the water conditions as soon as I have an update.

Great!

Roan

 

[danas90]

I understand how your mom feels, but that's not good for animals at all. I hope you don't have any cats because they can go blind if placed on an all vegetarian diet. N/M, I suspect I'm preaching to someone who already knows but can't do anything about it /QUOTE]

Don't worry, My fishes are all i've got :dive:

So... you're saying that the fish need to eat other animals to be able to be healthy, right?

 

[mishi8]

I understand how your mom feels, but that's not good for animals at all. I hope you don't have any cats because they can go blind if placed on an all vegetarian diet. N/M, I suspect I'm preaching to someone who already knows but can't do anything about it /QUOTE]

Don't worry, My fishes are all i've got :dive:

So... you're saying that the fish need to eat other animals to be able to be healthy, right?

Depends on the fish, but even standard fish flakes are made with fish meal.