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I do not consider myself a breeder by any stardard. I'm just a simple keeper of festival platies. I start with only two in a 30 gallon tank along with a pair cories, and some zebra danios. My two platies mated and had about 4 fry that survived. I placed the four fry in a ten gallon hospital tank, so that they might survive. Before my fry could grow to adult the platies had already birthed another 4 or 5. I now have about 11 or so(hard to count)and im afraid that inbreeding is becoming a very real concern. i was researching and could find any safe products to sterilize the fish. Any advice? Temp or lighting change? Its gotta be safe!
thanks for the help

What is your real concern? Is it a burgeoning population of platies or is it a burgeoning population of incestuous platies?

In either case, adding an angelfish or two would resolve both questions. It is a very safe and natural solution without the cost of medical operations or expensive chemicals.



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Well both are troubling. How ever i was thinking along the lines of stopping future spawning not really using them as food.
i dont think i could take witnessing by fish killing other fish.

thanks for the suggestion thought. However, if there are some water treatments that can sterilize my fish. money is not an object

Anyothers suggestion.. All are welcome

Oh you have a problem here.

First of all, even segregating the sexes won't necessarily stop the population growth for some time. Because many Poeciliid livebearers (Platies included) have a nice little capability that allows them to reproduce like flies. Namely, the female can store the male's sperm in her body cavity for some time, and thus one mating with a male can produce 4 or 5 litters of young!

Moral of the story: buy single sex groups of livebearers if you don't want a huge population explosion.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

If you don't want a population explosion, add only male livebearers to your tank. The females can sometimes morph into males if there is no other male in the tank (an actual experience I had once).
There is nothing you can buy for the tank to keep them from spawing. I take my surplus babies to one of my LFS. They won't pay me for them, but at least it keeps them from over populating the tank. You might exchange your female for another male also. You really don't want your platies to inbreed - it can cause a lot of problems later on.

Thanks for the great suggestions but I must admit I feel just as bad as when i first asked for aid. I'm finding hard to come to terms with my options.

#1 use fry as prey... (i kept platies becuase i like them not because they are beginer fish or easy to care for)

#2 Give away surpluss baby to fish store .. I can no longer tell whose a baby and who momma from the first batch (so giving my LFS inbreed baby is out of the question)

#3 give all my fish away and start from stratch and only buy male platies..I dont know about where you guys are but its impossible to find festivals around these parts. and they are really the only platy i like to keep.

option #3 is a last resort but Im hoping someone can come through for me an help me to learn that i.e. certain temps or water hardness can stop spawning.

While you don't like the idea of a predator, That option could actually work well for population control. Gather up the fry you have now, and place them in a 10 or 20 gallon tank, so they can grow out to adult size. Once they reach adult size, try seeing if any of your friends or family would be interested in them. If not, try placing a classified ad in your local newspaper. Offer them at either free, or 3/$1, something that the petstores don't offer, and people may become interested, as plattys are popular first pets

If you dont want to look into a predator for the tank, then this is the way to go

Inky