Has anyone got a lot of platies??

[Mary Burns]

Due to my original ignorance of being sold by LFS a pregnant female and male
(she had fry 3 days later) as my "first fish" I now have 22 platies. The
male was removed as I learnt more, but they are all together now as the fry
are 50 percent male. I have 10 females, 9 males and 3 unsexed. The oldest
fry are now 5 months old. They were either late bloomers, or sex changing at
4 months. As soon as I spotted a male, he was removed, but sex changing
carried on, as if nature was determined, and it only stopped when the males
were in there. I had 7 males together who fought all the time, even the
smallest joining in. So, putting them all together was the only option or
taking them to LFS to sell, but I wanted to keep them as they were born
here, and lovely redwags or sunset.I have seen mixed platies at LFS and mine
are all bright colours and beautiful.
I need advice from someone who has a lot too. I have a feeling that with
this many the general information of 2/3 female ratio to 1 male is
different. The more males the less they bother the girls...they are just too
busy with themselves. I also have deffinate couples, who stay together all
the time, with a couple who are "leaders" and patrol the centre and he
always intervenes in any chasing by other males, and returns to her. I have
had no population explosion either. The occasional clamped fin is always a
male. My original male is smaller than the juniors, but he still tries to
retain his dominance as he knows he was here first. They are in a 65 gall,
with 3 c.julli/3 ottos and a clown ( who had to be removed from his mates as
he was a bully)
So, has anyone got any advice...apart from splitting them up , as it didn't
work. Mary

[Dick]

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:37:19 GMT, "Mary Burns"
> wrote:

>Due to my original ignorance of being sold by LFS a pregnant female and male
>(she had fry 3 days later) as my "first fish" I now have 22 platies. The
>male was removed as I learnt more, but they are all together now as the fry
>are 50 percent male. I have 10 females, 9 males and 3 unsexed. The oldest
>fry are now 5 months old. They were either late bloomers, or sex changing at
>4 months. As soon as I spotted a male, he was removed, but sex changing
>carried on, as if nature was determined, and it only stopped when the males
>were in there. I had 7 males together who fought all the time, even the
>smallest joining in. So, putting them all together was the only option or
>taking them to LFS to sell, but I wanted to keep them as they were born
>here, and lovely redwags or sunset.I have seen mixed platies at LFS and mine
>are all bright colours and beautiful.
>I need advice from someone who has a lot too. I have a feeling that with
>this many the general information of 2/3 female ratio to 1 male is
>different. The more males the less they bother the girls...they are just too
>busy with themselves. I also have deffinate couples, who stay together all
>the time, with a couple who are "leaders" and patrol the centre and he
>always intervenes in any chasing by other males, and returns to her. I have
>had no population explosion either. The occasional clamped fin is always a
>male. My original male is smaller than the juniors, but he still tries to
>retain his dominance as he knows he was here first. They are in a 65 gall,
>with 3 c.julli/3 ottos and a clown ( who had to be removed from his mates as
>he was a bully)
>So, has anyone got any advice...apart from splitting them up , as it didn't
>work. Mary
>

I know your story well. My pain started with a pregnant Black Molly.
I moved her to a 10 gallon hospital tank and the next morning there
were about 50 fry forming a black cloud. Most of them survived. AS
they grew I gave 10 away and started moving the larger ones to other
tanks. In the larger tanks the Platties discovered parenthood and my
other fish were not good enough hunters. So I had all the fish I
wanted, my tanks were bursting.

Ah, separate them by sex, of course. So I began the identifying and
move strategy. I thought I was done, when one little bugger started
twitching his thing. For two days I tried in vain to catch him. I
would almost have him, even in the net when he would dash off to the
vegetation. He won, he is still in the 75 gallon tank. I moved the 3
females. During this process, I found 2 more small platties, probably
a month old. Too young to sex, thus I had to moniter them until I
could sex them. Of course one was a female and had to be removed as
the male was obviously a pederast. I think the other one must have
died. For the moment all is well.

One strange thing has happened. I had 5 male black mollies in a 10
gallon tank. Two were really into fighting each other so I moved one.
Three died over the next few months, just lost interest in living and
didn't eat. The remaining Molly was one of the fighters, but he
doesn't show much pizzas, the top fin rarely goes up. In contrast I
have 8 male platties in a 29 gallon tank and they are always active,
displaying and chasing. Very colorful and apparently done in fun. No
bad fin nipping.

The females all seem content to be rid of the "pesty" boys. I sure am
happy to be rid of the small fry, I hope.

dick

[NetMax]

"Mary Burns" > wrote in message
...
> Due to my original ignorance of being sold by LFS a pregnant female and
> male (she had fry 3 days later) as my "first fish" I now have 22
> platies. The male was removed as I learnt more, but they are all
> together now as the fry are 50 percent male. I have 10 females, 9 males
> and 3 unsexed. The oldest fry are now 5 months old. They were either
> late bloomers, or sex changing at 4 months. As soon as I spotted a
> male, he was removed, but sex changing carried on, as if nature was
> determined, and it only stopped when the males were in there. I had 7
> males together who fought all the time, even the smallest joining in.
> So, putting them all together was the only option or taking them to LFS
> to sell, but I wanted to keep them as they were born here, and lovely
> redwags or sunset.I have seen mixed platies at LFS and mine are all
> bright colours and beautiful.
> I need advice from someone who has a lot too. I have a feeling that
> with this many the general information of 2/3 female ratio to 1 male is
> different. The more males the less they bother the girls...they are
> just too busy with themselves. I also have deffinate couples, who stay
> together all the time, with a couple who are "leaders" and patrol the
> centre and he always intervenes in any chasing by other males, and
> returns to her. I have had no population explosion either. The
> occasional clamped fin is always a male. My original male is smaller
> than the juniors, but he still tries to retain his dominance as he
> knows he was here first. They are in a 65 gall, with 3 c.julli/3 ottos
> and a clown ( who had to be removed from his mates as he was a bully)
> So, has anyone got any advice...apart from splitting them up , as it
> didn't work. Mary


Generally speaking, once a female livebearer can conceive (and has been
exposed to males), they are always pregnant. You can remove every male
and they will still drop fry like clockwork for several months.
Separating them as they distinguish themselves is a time consuming
exercise, which breeders have to follow, but hobbyists have no genetic
(line-breeding) requirements to do so. ymmv

Also generally speaking, many hobbyists just let them spawn. Feed the
parents less and they will be more efficient in culling the weakest of
the newborn fry, and then give some away or add in some predators. For
example, a Betta will help reduce your numbers of fry. With advance
notice, some LFS will take extra fish, though you're probably not doing
them a favour ;~).
--
www.NetMax.tk

[Dick]

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:20:39 -0500, "NetMax"
> wrote:

>"Mary Burns" > wrote in message
...
>> Due to my original ignorance of being sold by LFS a pregnant female and
>> male (she had fry 3 days later) as my "first fish" I now have 22
>> platies. The male was removed as I learnt more, but they are all
>> together now as the fry are 50 percent male. I have 10 females, 9 males
>> and 3 unsexed. The oldest fry are now 5 months old. They were either
>> late bloomers, or sex changing at 4 months. As soon as I spotted a
>> male, he was removed, but sex changing carried on, as if nature was
>> determined, and it only stopped when the males were in there. I had 7
>> males together who fought all the time, even the smallest joining in.
>> So, putting them all together was the only option or taking them to LFS
>> to sell, but I wanted to keep them as they were born here, and lovely
>> redwags or sunset.I have seen mixed platies at LFS and mine are all
>> bright colours and beautiful.
>> I need advice from someone who has a lot too. I have a feeling that
>> with this many the general information of 2/3 female ratio to 1 male is
>> different. The more males the less they bother the girls...they are
>> just too busy with themselves. I also have deffinate couples, who stay
>> together all the time, with a couple who are "leaders" and patrol the
>> centre and he always intervenes in any chasing by other males, and
>> returns to her. I have had no population explosion either. The
>> occasional clamped fin is always a male. My original male is smaller
>> than the juniors, but he still tries to retain his dominance as he
>> knows he was here first. They are in a 65 gall, with 3 c.julli/3 ottos
>> and a clown ( who had to be removed from his mates as he was a bully)
>> So, has anyone got any advice...apart from splitting them up , as it
>> didn't work. Mary
>
>
>Generally speaking, once a female livebearer can conceive (and has been
>exposed to males), they are always pregnant. You can remove every male
>and they will still drop fry like clockwork for several months.
>Separating them as they distinguish themselves is a time consuming
>exercise, which breeders have to follow, but hobbyists have no genetic
>(line-breeding) requirements to do so. ymmv
>
>Also generally speaking, many hobbyists just let them spawn. Feed the
>parents less and they will be more efficient in culling the weakest of
>the newborn fry, and then give some away or add in some predators. For
>example, a Betta will help reduce your numbers of fry. With advance
>notice, some LFS will take extra fish, though you're probably not doing
>them a favour ;~).

I haven't had any new fry in several months and happy for it. My
adults did eat some fry, but just one escaping from each birthing
becomes too much. Separation seems to be working in my tanks.

dick