Platy Fish



Scientific Name: Xiphophorus maculatus

Synonyms: None.

Common Name(s): Platy, Moonfish, and Southern Platy fish to name just a few. Your LFS may listed based on their color patterns, a few examples are, Red Wagtail Platys, Mickey Mouse, Red Tuxedo, Topsail Rainbow, Sunset, Golden, Calico, Salt and Pepper, Coral Red, Black, Blue, the list is endless.

Origin: Central America

Family: Poecilidae

Species Type: livebearer

Maximum Size: 2-2.5 inches (5.1-6.4cm)

Life Span: 3-5 years

Natural Habitat: Swamps, rivers, & streams

Diet: Omnivore: flakes, algae, vegetation, brine shrimp, tubifex, bloodworms, etc. Platies are grazers, always picking at plants or tank decorations. If there are soft plants and algae, feed once a day. Otherwise, offer small meals twice a day to match the natural grazing behavior better. Feed baby fish more frequently for the best growth.

Temperature: 64°-79° F (18°-26° C)

pH: 7.0-8.5

Minimum Tank Size: 10 gallons (40 liters)

Tank Region: All levels (mostly middle)

Temperament: This peaceful community fish is a good choice for the beginner, and expert as well. The male platy can be aggressive during mating so keeping a ratio of 1 male:2 females will give the females a chance to rest.

Possible Tankmates: These peaceful, active community fish can be safety mixed with most other small, peaceful fishes, such as guppies, neon tetras and swordtails.

Filtration and Setup: Platies can tolerate a wide range of water conditions. Weekly, 10% water changes and annual gravel/decoration cleaning will keep the water clean and you platys happy and healthy. Platys are sensitive to ammonia, and should only be added to established tanks. Many beginners use the platy to cycle their tank and end up losing the fish to ammonia toxicity.

Coloration: You will find platies in solid/mixed colors that include black, green, white, silver, orange, red, blue, yellow, and gold.

Varieties include: moon, wagtail, tuxedo, twin-bar, mickey mouse, top-sail, hi-fin, sunset, yellow tail, red tail, comet, mirror, half-moon, bleeding heart, and more.



Breeding: Platies breed in most aquarium setups with no effort. They can start breeding at three months. There should be a ratio of at least 1 male:2 females in an aquarium. Parents will often eat their fry, so if you want to keep all the fry the pregnant female should be placed in another tank with sponge filter or in a breeding trap. To help insure the survival of the fry, java moss and other plants will help in the main tank or in the separate tank as the mother can sometimes turn cannibalistic to her own fry. Gestation period is usually 28 days but could be from 20 to 40 days. Fry can be fed crushed flakes, baby-brine-shrimp, or any commercial fry foods. The platy can also cross-breed with the swordtail (Xiphophorous helleri) and the variatus platy (Xiphophorous variatus). Many domestic color strains of X. maculatus were created by introducing the genes of desired traits from either X. helleri or X. variatus.