what would YOU do with these platys?

Dori · 09-02-2007, 03:35 PM

Dec 14, 2006, we had a huge storm in Seattle and lost power for 5 days. Needless to say I lost all my fish in 3 aquariums. So I decided to make one of them a saltwater (29g hex), one a goldfish tank (10g rectange) and this freshwater 29 gallon rectangle.

I had a very mixed community in both freshwater tanks prior to the storm. After I set the tanks back up I went to the LFS and bought 2 orange and 2 silver platys. They Will Not Stop Reproducing!

It seems like they have had 30 fry each time and maybe 8-10 of those have survived each time. Last time I went in for saltwater fish I grabbed about 15 platys and brought them in for their adoption tank. I really kinda want to go back to what I had before, but there are easily 40 fish in there now. I am going to go take a bunch in again today.

What would you do?

Oh, I also bought a loach because I had tiny snails. He doesn't eat the snails - I think he may be eating new fry, but he chases and noses the platys. I think I'll take him back too. Sheesh.

twood63 · 09-02-2007, 07:51 PM

I have the same problem with my 29 community I have about 30 I will be more than happy to give to anyone wanting I believe they are turq green. Every day in my plant mat we find more small ones.

T

Kuli_Loach · 09-02-2007, 08:08 PM

Go to your lfs and get store credit, if you can't then give them away. By the way the 29 needs to be the goldfish, 30g for one goldfish and then 10g per other goldfish so a 40g for two and a 50g for 3.

Tommy Gun · 09-02-2007, 08:09 PM

Hey Dori! You know, for being a fish forum, I am really surprised no one has taken Dori as a screen name until you!

Quote:

They Will Not Stop Reproducing!

If it counts for anything, the silver lining in this cloud of platy fry is that you must be doing something right to get such a high success rate of reproduction...even if they are relatively easy to breed or not.

The problem you face is going to be a hard one to stop or even slow down, which I think you might find is something you would want to do before too much over breeding and/or inbreeding occurs. While it may be relatively common for hobbyists to continue breeding the same fish over and over, or breed fish which have come from the same parents over and over again, I think you might find some who would consider doing so a bit unethical since this can lead to debilitating birth defects and such. The best thing you can do is to either separate the males from females, or separate them from your tank before it becomes so over populated that you have to start all over again.

Quote:

Oh, I also bought a loach because I had tiny snails. He doesn't eat the snails - I think he may be eating new fry, but he chases and noses the platys.

While it may be possible for your loach to be eating the fry, it is probably even more likely that the parents and other larger platies are eating them as this is relatively common in the fish world...in fact, even herbivorous fish would be a decent suspect for the disappearance of another fish if it was able to fit in its mouth.

Do you know what type of loach you have exactly? If not, I can say that a lot of loaches truly need to be in a group in order to behave in the manner which they are 'publicized' or commonly known to act...including not being the most efficient snail eaters in the world either. Too add to that, not all loaches are going to eat snails, nor are the ones which do as apt to eat snails as much or as well as another type.

twood63 · 09-02-2007, 08:52 PM

Thats my plan but I figured I'd offer to the forum first. It's the forums information that have improved my tanks to the point of breeding. This time around in fish keeping it was just for the art of enjoying the fish.

Kuli_Loach · 09-02-2007, 09:09 PM

That is what I have mine for is enjoyment although I have made money on all of my fish, not lost. I do plan to sell the fish I do breed such as mollies, apple snails, and angels.

Dori · 09-03-2007, 03:07 AM

I scooped up about 15 more and took them in to the lfs today. It never occurred to me to ask for store credit.

Tommy, I was thinking I must be doing something right as well

. Not only are the platys reproducing but the plants in there go crazy.... I have to thin them once a month.

Re: the loach, I decided to go ahead and keep it and buy another but unfortunately the lfs had just gotten their loaches in and they looked a bit iffy. When I had a pair before they played together and were quite fun to watch. They loved playing dead too, which freaked me out the first few times, I'd been ready to scoop them into oblivian.

And, my name IS Dori.. lol. That's one of the reasons I finally started the sw tank, my granddaughter wanted nemo and dory at my house.

Thanks everyone for your feedback!

Tommy Gun · 09-03-2007, 11:35 AM

Kuli,

Be careful about breeding apple snails...I have heard that many areas are starting to ban the sale of them...probably because they are so invasive and can propagate so rapidly. In fact, all of my LFS have stopped selling FW snails completely.

Dori,

That is actually pretty cool...when I started my saltwater tank, I found myself keeping all sorts of characters from Finding Nemo but have since been able to stray away from that and get other types of livestock as well. Although I have to say that I have had a very hard time trying to keep a "Dori" alive and gave up after trying twice. Oh well...it wasn't meant to be I guess.

Another suggestion you might want to try is if your LFS won't give you store credit for platy fry, they may let you trade a few of them for a different fish...for example, this was how I made sure I didn't inbreed my live bearers when I was into that. In fact, I am still breeding some endler's live bearers and trading them for fish food and on one occasion, a coral.

Kuli_Loach · 09-03-2007, 11:56 AM

My LFS don't know what they are, they sell them as snails not apple snails so I will just sell them back to them. The apple snail can't be released in the wild here or it is a HUGE fine and the petstore is suppost to keep records and everything but there main store does I guess, they don't keep records either.

Tommy Gun · 09-03-2007, 12:29 PM

While there may be some small distinguishing characteristic (e.g. color or size), my understanding is that apple snail is just another name for a large mystery snail. In fact, I noticed that even liveaquaria.com doesnt sell this type of snail any more...even though it says they are seasonal or frequently available, I would assume that they could simply breed them in mass quantities given the fact that I am having an impossible time trying to rid my endler's tank of them.

Sorry about getting off topic here...let's get back on track, ok?