# Breeding Platies



## Janz (Apr 12, 2008)

I know it is easy but I want to breed platies. I'm going to start with 3 males and 7 females but Im not sure if I should get all the same kind or what. When they breed different kinds together, will the babies come out mottled or ugly? Is it better to keep the colour strains true? Or does it matter?


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

I find my baby mixed-up-platies cute as little buttons. It's just about entirely up to you. Do you want a tank full of all the same kind of platies or do you want variety? I'd always go for the variety. Unless you're trying to breed them to sell a specific type, and you want one type per tank. Me I just want lots of happy little mutt fishies swimming around. So variety is it for me. YMMV.

I think a platy and a molly made some babies together too. I can't figure out how I got black balloon lyretail mollies with silver bellies, otherwise, since there were no other mollies in that tank, at that time, just a black female molly, with platies. I also have some entirely black fry from that molly mommy, and I'm sure that the black molly-daddy was the dad in that case.

Warren


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## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

Most of the morphs (forms) of the livebearers that are commonly available in pet stores are the results of strain breeding and development to refine specific characteristics like shape and colour. That's why you get mickey mouse platies and brick red swordtails and balloon mollies.

With the more highly refined strains, you should - if you only keep those strains together - get mostly the same strain resulting. However, because in the past those types came from people breeding other strains together, you will periodically get throwbacks showing features of the original brood stocks.

Also, when you mix strains now, you have no idea what you will get due to mixing and matching of dominant and subdominant traits.

One of the problems is that many livebearers can store sperm packets in their bodies for long periods of time. If they have had exposure to other strains (as frequently happens at pet stores and wholesalers) then they can already be impregnated with 'foreign' sperm.

So it's up to you as to what you want to do. If you seriously want to work with one single strain, it's better to find a breeder who has been working with that strain and obtain your stock from him/her. If you just want baby platies swimming and growing up, then get whatever pleases your eye and see what results.

And all appearances to the contrary, I think that KhuliLoachFan's mollies are just showing that they have mixed genetic makeup. Despite some opinions on the intertubes, I'm quite certain that mollies don't interbreed with platies. They're too distinctly separate species.


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

That's cool. It makes sense then. Because the sunset-wag-platy mom has babies that don't look much like the mom or the dad, whichever dad it was. Of course, at the 5 mm fry stage, it's hard to tell sometimes.  I am enjoying the whole thing, which is I suppose, the whole point. The storage-of-sperm-packets is kind of a cool thing. I read about that somewhere. Apparently for people who are really trying hard to breed a specific form, that might be frustrating. But for those of us who just love watching little wiggly critters do their thing, the whole thing is fascinating. I love watching my fishies. I guess if I didn't, I should get out of this hobby. 

W


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## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

Watching the fish is the best part.  

Given how short the average livebearer lifespan is and how long they can store sperm, it's pretty obvious why serious breeders separate the sexes as soon as possible.

Still, if you're a skinflint, you could also just go and buy yourself a nice female guppy from a mixed tank and be pretty sure that you'll be able to fill your tank with guppies before long.


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Westender said:


> And all appearances to the contrary, I think that KhuliLoachFan's mollies are just showing that they have mixed genetic makeup. Despite some opinions on the intertubes, I'm quite certain that mollies don't interbreed with platies. They're too distinctly separate species.


After doing just a tiny bit of research, I'd have to agree. Mollies are completely different from Platies in fact, Mollies can live in saltwater, which I didn't know, and are used as feeders in that area.

After reading many, many articles on angelfish genetics, not that molly/platie genetics are the same by any stretch of the imagination, there are many recessive genes and when you have enough fry, the recessives may start to pop up.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Just make sure you have more females than males (do at least a 4 to 1 ratio) - you can even interbreed them with swords. They won't breed with mollies though, as stated.


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## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

They actually pop up pretty quickly - there are a lot of fast and loose livebearer breeders out there!

I was in Florida earlier this year and watched schools of sailfin mollies in a saltwater / freshwater stream right next to my hotel. Sadly, I didn't have a net.


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

I've read that the hybrids are weaker and sterile.

Here's the article: http://www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/detail.aspx?aid=22769&cid=53&search=


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

my primitive understanding of genetics would have me disagree and agree with you, tabatha. that link makes total sense but aren't species of animals interbred to maintain breed purity especially susceptible to certain diseases and whatnot (like hip-displacia for labrador retrievers? though obviously dog genetics don't really equate to fish dna)?

/am pretty unknowledgable about this whole thing, but i DO have a whole wack of greyish-brown platy fry swimming around.


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

It makes sense to me that when you selectively breed dogs to establish a pure-bred variety, that sometimes you can accidentally strongly select for faults (like you mention with labrador retreivers). But the converse is also true. You can breed a horse and a donkey, and you get a mule, who is sterile. 

I wonder what "mule" and "mutt" equivalent DNA-type experiments are possible with fishies.

Warren


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

Apparently "intentional hybridization" causes people to get upset:

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/item.php?news=1687

W


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

woah, cool info. thx.


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

At the end of all DRAS meetings, there are always auctions, because last night was the last meeting of the season (resuming in September), the number of entries in the auction was huge! Everything from cichlids to driftwood and livebearers.

There were a number of platies, sunset and pineapple as well as others. I could not believe the bidding wars that ensued for the platies! I had never really given them a second thought, more interested in fancy and wild guppies as far as livebearers are concerned.

I purchased a trio of red albino guppies.


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

All fish are fascinating, but livebearers are incredibly fascinating creatures to me. I think I'll get back into guppies too. I haven't kept guppies since I was a kid. I love a tank of fish that is happy, and makes babies. My female platies have produced over 50 fry in the last two weeks. I didn't do a thing except feed them and change their water. They're just baby-fishy-makin' machines.

W


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## juanitow (Jun 21, 2008)

KhuliLoachFan said:


> It makes sense to me that when you selectively breed dogs to establish a pure-bred variety, that sometimes you can accidentally strongly select for faults (like you mention with labrador retreivers). But the converse is also true. You can breed a horse and a donkey, and you get a mule, who is sterile.
> 
> I wonder what "mule" and "mutt" equivalent DNA-type experiments are possible with fishies.
> 
> Warren


Getting a sterile animal does not mean getting a weaker animal. Lions can breed with tigers, and they produce ligers or tigon. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger). These hybrids are sterile but display vigour, which is appropriately enough called hybrid vigour.


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