kjfhg Posted September 5, 2021 Share Posted September 5, 2021 I have two 20 gal planted Platy tanks. Started out with 2 males and 6 females. Wasn't very long and we started having babies. I moved the males to the other tank to stop the population explosion and the males constantly chasing the females. The original tank has several generations of fry and juveniles. I want to pull the males and add them to the "man tank" before they start impregnating the females but am having a difficult time determining which are the boys. Do they need to be a certain age to identify boys and girls. They move so fast but the ones I've been able to look at closely seem to be girls. At what age are they mature for breeding? As a side question, one of the males that I moved is a bully and chases the other male. The tank is a planted tank and there are some rummy nose tetras, ember tetras, and albino corys in it. Thoughts on what I can do to stop his agression? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tihshho Posted September 5, 2021 Share Posted September 5, 2021 The key is to spot the gonopodium. I've seem pregnant platy females as small as 1/2". Keep in mind females can retain sperm for a bit of time, so you might not have males, and then out of no where you have a female with a gravid spot and then a week later babies. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 I got four new platies last month from a breeder. The largest was around 3/4 inch and the smallest was barely more than a fry. I was somewhat disappointed that they were all female because all my platies are female and I was hoping for a male so that I could raise at least one batch of fry. Tuesday I was feeding the QT tank they are in and lo and behold, the largest one has a gonopodium and the second to the largest has what looks like an in-between stage between the fan shape and the gonopodium shape. As of today, they both look like actual gonopodiums. I have looked closely at these fish every day because I was checking to see whether either of the tiny ones might turn out to be male. IDK exactly how old my fish were when they arrived, but based on my experience of platy fry, the two who recently 'developed' as males were at least 2 and 3 months old when they arrived and that was weeks ago. I moved them to a tank with only other males in it today, and I hope I wasn't too late to prevent pregnancy in their muuuch smaller sisters. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjfhg Posted September 10, 2021 Author Share Posted September 10, 2021 Interesting...I've looked and looked at my fry and juveniles and they all look like females. I'll keep a closer look as they grow a bit more! My oldest are almost 2 months old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalmedByFish Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 This raises another question for me. (I just got platies for the first time.) I thought platies tend to eat almost all their fry. No? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardedbillygoat1975 Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 Not necessarily I’ve had some that were great and others horrible about it. I’ve found it to be a trait like color - if you find one that does eat their young you cull it and you can nearly eliminate the trait after a couple generations. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjfhg Posted September 10, 2021 Author Share Posted September 10, 2021 I have lots of hiding places in the plants also I have some Java moss that the newest fry seem to hide in and around. I love having the babies! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardedbillygoat1975 Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 Platy and molly babies are great because they are colorful from the outset. I find guppies exasperating because they take their sweet time to color up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted September 11, 2021 Share Posted September 11, 2021 Definitely following! I’m raising my first group of platy fry and I’ve been wondering when I’ll be able to sex them. In terms of platys eating fry: the ones in my outdoor tubs don’t seem to eat any of their fry. I thought they would, but I haven’t seen any evidence of it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted September 11, 2021 Share Posted September 11, 2021 On 9/10/2021 at 1:27 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said: Platy and molly babies are great because they are colorful from the outset. I find guppies exasperating because they take their sweet time to color up! Interesting--when I raised platies in the past they were all orange so there was no mystery what color the fry would be. Now I have dark blue females I bought from a store with mixed colors in the tank, so both their parents and their mates could have been any color. I have 6 fry so far, 3 dark gray and 3 pale gold/yellowish. I am literally willing them to grow, grow, grow so I can see how they turn out. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardedbillygoat1975 Posted September 12, 2021 Share Posted September 12, 2021 Lots of water changes, live foods and a little warmer than usual can help them grow fast. Do you have some crushed coral in there for them? They like hard water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 Follow-up question here: do all platys start with a “female” anal fin? And at some point akin to fish puberty, does the female-shaped fin narrow into a gonopodium? Is that how this works? All my platy fry look like females right now, but of course that’s not statistically likely. @PineSong it sounds like you actually saw the fin transition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 On 9/19/2021 at 11:35 PM, Hobbit said: Follow-up question here: do all platys start with a “female” anal fin? And at some point akin to fish puberty, does the female-shaped fin narrow into a gonopodium? Is that how this works? All my platy fry look like females right now, but of course that’s not statistically likely. @PineSong it sounds like you actually saw the fin transition. Yes I did. Because these juveniles were not born in my tanks I’m not sure how old they were when the anal fins changed shape, but I would say they were likely 12 to 16 weeks old based on size. I still have two smaller juveniles who arrived with them who have not changed yet, but they also are not yet as big as the others were when they did. I have seven fry born here about three weeks ago and they all look female at this stage. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 On 9/12/2021 at 1:47 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said: Lots of water changes, live foods and a little warmer than usual can help them grow fast. Do you have some crushed coral in there for them? They like hard water. I've got very hard water and crushed coral in the tank. The temp is @ 80, and I'm doing daily 10-30% water changes but I've failed in the live foods area. I really don't want to do BBS and at the same time, I'm frustrated that they are not growing faster. They are active and healthy seeming, so I am treating this as an exercise in patience. Grumpily. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 On 9/19/2021 at 11:35 PM, Hobbit said: Follow-up question here: do all platys start with a “female” anal fin? And at some point akin to fish puberty, does the female-shaped fin narrow into a gonopodium? Is that how this works? All my platy fry look like females right now, but of course that’s not statistically likely. @PineSong it sounds like you actually saw the fin transition. Aaaand now #3 of my 4 platy juveniles has a gonopodium. I only have one left who might still turn out to be female. The last remaining one was just a large fry when they arrived, so I guess I will have another few weeks before I can see which way it'll go. I felt bad removing the newly turned male to the boys' tank and leaving just the smallest in the tank all alone 😞. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalmedByFish Posted September 22, 2021 Share Posted September 22, 2021 On 9/21/2021 at 5:56 PM, PineSong said: I felt bad removing the newly turned male to the boys' tank and leaving just the smallest in the tank all alone 😞. At the rate they're going, that one won't be alone long. 😜 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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