Breeding Red Wagtail Platys

[Samuel]

Hi guys I'm trying to breed plates in one of my display tanks but I'm not seeing any new fry.  The tank has been setup for about 6 months now.

I have young fish in there from a female who was carrying when I bought the fish.

Temperature is 72, ph of 7, hard water 300+.

Ideas on how to get more breeding?

[Tony s]

I have a platy colony. Your water looks a lot like mine. I do keep my temperature higher. I use a lot of hornwort in my tanks for cover. Maybe you don’t have enough hiding spots for fry to hide. Something like the hornwort, guppy grass, water wisteria. Some place for them to hide from larger fish. Filter intake could be another area. Mine intake is covered with sponge 

[Samuel]

Hi Tony, cheers for the reply. I also covered my filter intake and am thinking the same thing about cover for the fry. I like your idea of the hortwort, might have to think about trying that.

What other fish do you keep with success?I'm curious as our water chemistry is similar. 

[Tony s]

Really haven’t had an issue with raising fish. Except for standard neon tetras, and German blue rams. Both of which can be twitchy to start off with. Mind you, most of my fish live in communities, so I don’t really breed anything.there is a YouTube channel from Chicago called Primetime Aquatics with our waters. He only gives species profiles of fish that he raises in our water. There is even a member here that successfully keeps discus in this water as well. Got to remember that about 84% of the continental US has slightly hard to very hard water
 

my list is kinda short, only been doing this a couple of years. My daughter won a feeder fish at a fair, died next day. So now we have fish. Who knew I’d get hooked. But, 6 types of Corydoras, angelfish, rainbow fish, danios, tetras (only have problems with regular neons), bettas, rasboras, lots of snails, guppies, otos, gouramis. And platys of course. Have around 32 in a 20 gallon. Anywhere from tiny fry to 2.5 year old adults. That’s what I’ve got currently. Most of which are a couple of years old with no problems. Even have 2 pairs of breeding angelfish. The fry get up to free swimming stage and then, unfortunately, get picked off by rainbow fish. I really need to separate them, but don’t currently have the tanks to do so. 
 

with our water, we can raise almost anything, but not everything will successfully breed.

now, all that being said, I have had to change my water in the last year. My well water is so high in iron it turns everything rust colored. In the house and outside. To the point you really can’t irrigate anything outside, for the risk of changing its color permanently. So now everything inside is softened. And I’m having to use RO water to remove the salt. Then remineralize everything, balancing my ph, gh, and kh. Which, quite honestly, is a real pain. Keeping everything consistent is an issue. If you have most city waters, they do the hards parts for you and should work well. They don’t change the ph or hardness though. Which is okay, but gives you a consistent source. What I’ve learned is consistency is the key. Using what you have and not chasing the ph, gh, kh. The fish adapt as long as it’s consistent. 
 

my current water parameters I’m trying to make, ph 7.2, gh of 8, kh 4-6. Keeping it there is harder than I thought it would be. Just trying to create a basic neutral water at the moment. Have had water as high as 16 dgh when I started. Didn’t notice, treat the water when creating, didn’t check the tank. Kept adding treated water for top offs. Which keeps raising gh. No problems though, all fish are still here and doing well.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 3 by Tony s

[Samuel]

Yeah wow, that's unfortunate you need to do so much work on your water to make it viable, that does sound like a real pain.

I enjoy watching Primetime aquatics, they're very informative.

Sounds like we've kept similar fish. I have noticed that Neon Tetras can be quite finicky, I have 1 out of 20 that has been alive for 3 years but the others consistently died from month 1 through to my last neon. A bit disappointing but I guess they are bred quite heavily.

But thanks for the reply Tony, appreciate it