rm
Passport
- Family
- Platys
- Grows to
- 5 cm (2")
- Lives
- 3–4 years
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Care
- Beginner
- Swims
- Mid-water
- Keep
- In a group of 3 or more
- Water
- 20–26 °C (68–79 °F)
MexicoBelize
Care requirements
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On record for Platy: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 57 L / 15.0 US gal
- pH 7–8.2
- Hardness 10–30 dGH
- Diet omnivore
- Tank length 60 cm minimum
Keeping notes
More females than males, or the males never leave them alone. Expect fry, constantly.
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Platies are the fish people should be recommended more often. They're hardy, cheerful, active, colourful, cheap, and they cope with beginner mistakes that would kill almost anything else in this catalogue.
They come in an absurd range of bred colours and patterns — reds, sunsets, wagtails, mickey mouse, tuxedo — none of which occur in the wild fish and all of which are the same easy animal underneath.
The one thing to understand before buying is that they breed. Buy mixed sexes and you will have fry within weeks, continuously, forever. Buy males only and you have a colourful peaceful community fish with no complications.
Tank setup
Give your platies hard, alkaline water. This is the most commonly missed thing about livebearers: they're Central American hard-water fish and they do badly in the soft acidic tank built for tetras.
Plant the tank reasonably densely. Fry survive in cover, which matters whether you want them to or not, and adults appreciate somewhere to duck.
Leave open swimming space. They're active and busy through the middle and upper water.
Keep more females than males if you keep both. A single female with several males gets harried constantly.
They're tolerant of a wide temperature range and don't need a warm tank.
Feeding
Platies are omnivores that lean vegetarian, and this is where people get their diet wrong.
Feed vegetable content deliberately. A spirulina-based flake, blanched courgette or spinach, and algae-based foods should be a real part of what they get rather than an afterthought.
Add protein alongside — frozen daphnia and brine shrimp — for condition and colour.
Avoid: an all-protein diet, which causes digestive problems in a fish built to graze, and avoid overfeeding, which they'll always encourage.
Filtration and flow
Moderate flow and ordinary filtration. They're undemanding and adaptable.
Keep the water hard. If your tap water is soft, this is the one adjustment worth making for them, and crushed coral in the filter is the simple route.
Regular water changes keep them in condition. Nothing else about their maintenance is difficult.
With plants
Platies are safe with plants and will graze soft algae off them without doing damage.
Plant densely at the sides — fine-leaved plants and floating cover are where fry hide, which is the difference between a few surviving and none.
Their preference for hard water suits vallisneria, java fern and anubias well.
Health
They're very hardy and rarely ill, and most problems come from soft water or a protein-heavy diet.
Watch for a fish shimmying on the spot without moving forward. In livebearers that usually points to water that's too soft or a chill rather than to infection.
They're prone to the usual community complaints and respond well to standard treatment.
Breeding
Platies are livebearers and they need no encouragement whatsoever. Females store sperm and can produce several broods from a single mating, so a female bought pregnant will keep delivering for months.
Fry are born fully formed and swimming, and they're immediately large enough to take crushed flake and baby brine shrimp.
The adults eat them, which is the only population control in a community tank. Dense planting is what determines how many get through — and if you want the colony to stay manageable, that's a decision to make deliberately.
Tank mates
Avoid10
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Platy at 5 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Platy at 5 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Least Killifish Platy grows to 5 cm against Least Killifish at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Scarlet Badis Platy grows to 5 cm against Scarlet Badis at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Common Goldfish Common Goldfish is not safe with Platy: common goldfish and platys are a bad pairing.
Only with care12
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Platy is peaceful.
- Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid Platy and Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid are an uneasy mix: platys and sth american cichlids - dwarf are a pairing to watch.
- Bala Shark Bala Shark is a risk to Platy: platys and sharks are a pairing to watch.
- Bolivian Ram Platy and Bolivian Ram are an uneasy mix: platys and sth american cichlids - dwarf are a pairing to watch.
- Cockatoo Cichlid Platy and Cockatoo Cichlid are an uneasy mix: platys and sth american cichlids - dwarf are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 84 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 2 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.