Livebearers are easy.... yeah right

So I trade Poke for some platies which were all happy and healthy little fish. I know these are considered beginner fish but I cant seem to keep them alive. They are in with some Australian rainbows and small cichlids who dont really pay any attention to them at all. The only thing I saw that might have been an issue was that my heat was up at 82. I had to do a heater swap in that tank a while back and never had it dialed in good. I normally try to keep it at 78. I have not pulled out the test kit but I do regular water changes so usually this is not an issue. All my other fish are doing great, I just cant seem to get the platy to thrive.... any suggestions?

I have never had any luck with platties either. On the other hand mollies and guppies have always thrived for me. Same tank, same water, platties just never would survive. It would be interesting to know what you find.

The platies were to be a breeding colony to provide food for my puffer. I had one female give birth but I did not catch her in time and lost the fry. Then about a week later she dies. I might just try some mollies out.

May be age :/ They have a lifespan of 3-5 years. And most platys are obtained around the same time unless are fry born in the tank.

This is my very first time with platies. I have done guppies before and they did great.

I had platies for a few ongoing years and my mom has some right now. Ours did well.

I just read 78-82 is ideal temp. Wouldn't guess it's that. What type of food are you feeding?

I have read that the higher temps that I was running (82) was too much. I am in the process of backing it down to 78 again.

These guys are spoiled because I am trying to get size on my cichlids so they get frozen bloodworms, mysis shrimp, brine shrimp. They also get a small Southern Delight pellet and a Zoo Med Spirulina 20 flake along with some freeze dried bloodworm.

Hmm, I always fed mine just flake? Maybe someone can weigh in on what they've fed. Maybe it's too much protein for them? I'm just throwing things out there with no background to go on with that though.

It could be an issue since I am power feeding the heterospilus cichlids for a while to get some size on them to move into my 210g tank.

Maybe spoiling them isn't a good thing? Lol like a dog getting too fat with table scraps all the time?

Well they show no real size gain like they are fat or anything. Maybe just not the most nutritionally balanced or in their case not enough veggi matter.

How are swordtails in comparison to platies? A bit more durable?

Hmm maybe try different feeding options for them then? That would be my only guess. Some say salt helps. Others say it doesn't matter.

I have never kept swords personally. My platy were in a 30 gallon with 1 angel and I had over 100 babies at one time because I put the females in breeder boxes to give birth. What color variation do you have?

My platy are a Micky Mouse variety. Since Im down to two healthy looking ones and another acting strange... I may just let Scruffy have the two healthy ones as 'dinner guests' and just try some mollies.

I had variatus and sunsets. My mom has sunsets and red wag. They have done well for us. Maybe try some of those when cheap at petco? I never had good luck with mollies. But I have recently read the black and dalmatians live better in low brackish waters.

THEY'RE DYING?!?!?! How could you :'( my platty babies!
Hahahaha, kidding! =P

If I remember correctly, Platties do like some salt in their water, and it wouldn't hurt to boost the hardness in the water. HOWEVER... I didn't have to do either of those things in my 100 gallon tank that they came from. That being said, the remaining platties I did have, got eaten up by my bullhead catfish (or the Albino Senegal Bichir that I traded, DMD123 with).

I would say that if the platties are popping out babies, the rainbowfish you have are most likely eating the fry. OR, the fry are being sucked up in your filter intake. I find that I can never raise fish fry whenever I'm running any type of filter, even if it has a prefilter sponge. I have the best fry survival rate when I'm just using a sponge filter dialed down really low.

I really think the rainbowfish are picking off any fry that may have popped out of the platties.

I caught one mom and put her in a breeder box and she ate her five babies    It was a piece of junk box from petsmart that allows the baby fish to find their way back up through the grate at the bottom into the chamber where the mom is at. I had seen one baby swimming in the tank and knew she was delivering, so I was able to catch her.

I think it might be a combo of high water temp, high protein diet and the stress from being in with the cichlids.

Maybe what I need is a breeding pair of convicts to get my feeders from.

Those would be hardier and pop them out like crazy!

I dont know why but I feel bad to use cichlids as feeders. And really I would not go through that many. I might only use three or four a month. I try to vary his diet but would only do the feeders on occasion to keep his hunting skills up.

Haha platy and molly are fine but not cichlids? They all go in the same and come out the same.

I have a tank with a lot of platys in it.  I have harder water and I don't add salt to any of my tanks even the one that has my mollies in it.  The tank the platys are in is unheated.  The water runs 70 degrees and they are spawning and happy.  I have good cover for them in the tank with plants and sand and wood.  My fry don't survive well as I have no sponge on the intake in this tank, just haven't gotten around to it.  And I also have a powerjet on one side of this tank which makes it difficult for the little ones when they get caught in the flow. I feed mostly flake and repashy to this tank. Occasionally, maybe once a week I feed bloodworms or brine shrimp as I have some other fish in this tank also that like those things.

I'm sorry you are having trouble with them. They are beautiful and super colorful to watch in a tank even if you are also raising them up for food. I am not sure they will give you enough babies to provide a really good food source though. You would need a number of them to keep the food going for any larger fish and its "belly"...LOL.

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote:Haha platy and molly are fine but not cichlids? They all go in the same and come out the same.

Well, actually cichlids have sharp spines in their dorsal and anal fins that livebearers don't have so they are considered 'safer.'

Valid point

I think if the cichlid was sized appropriately and with the mouth structure of the puffer there would be no issue with the use of cichlids as a food source. Its just that cichlids are so much more interactive and show a degree of intelligence that just makes it feel wrong to just use them as food. Just my opinion.

But platy, molly, and guppies are prettier colored and better markings. haha I don't feed fish live on purpose but to me anything but goldfish is fine.

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote:But platy, molly, and guppies are prettier colored and better markings.

And that is why they taste better to my puffer...   

Haha hey sloppy Joes taste dang good and aren't pretty

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote:Haha hey sloppy Joes taste dang good and aren't pretty

So cichlid fry are the 'sloppy Joe's' of the fish world?   

Haha no I really like cichlids I was speaking in general that such because food looks good doesn't mean it's going to taste better.

I am getting up a decent breeding colony of H.formosa, and was thinking about getting rid of them to make room, so if you are interested send me a PM. They seem to grow slowly, and obviously are small, but if you give them a bigger tank and more food they might keep growing and reproduce fast enough for you.

I don't know anything about platies, but I have had good luck with guppies in most tank conditions. Temp might have been a little high for them and caused them stress, which weakened them and made them susceptible to disease or infection. But I really don't know, could be the lack of veggies as well

platies really need to be in a tank by themselves. Set up a tank with harder water just for them, make sure it has lots of cover and you want 3 females for every male. Dont feed too much protein and lots of veggies. This is the nursery I use, it uses the bubbler to suck the babies into the side nursery.
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That is what I was looking for with the V shaped bottom where the fry do not get back into the mothers chamber. Mine was a Petsmart one with just a grate and the fish found their way back up and got ate by mom.

I have always gone with the 'live and let die' method of livebearer reproduction... I guess I feed enough and provide enough cover that many of the fry actually survive despite the parents being in the same tank. I guess this is not ideal to maximize numbers, and I have never seen something like that nursery thing, I might have to look into getting one of those.

DMD123 wrote:That is what I was looking for with the V shaped bottom where the fry do not get back into the mothers chamber. Mine was a Petsmart one with just a grate and the fish found their way back up and got ate by mom.

DMD I found this nursery at APFP. LuminousAphid I have lots of plants but none of my fry seem to survive I just have too many hungry mouths in my tank!!