aqualung

hello i have a bow front 16 gal and my water is very good after the cycle took 5 weeks to get it there .

i have 3 red wag platys that i used to cycle the tank and today i bought 3 neons and 1 small oto algee eater after they get established i want to get 4 more neons and and a vacuum cleaner (a cory for the bottom) for a total of 3 red wags 7 neons 1 cory and 1 small oto algee eater

my questions are: if i get 3 sunset platys will that push my tank over the population limits?
and will those 2 kinds of platys get along together (red wags and sunset)? or


thanks for any replies i get
aqualung

ynaggo

Those platies will get together fine.
Keep in mind Cories like it when there are in groups of 3 or more.

In my past tanks I've found algae eaters to get aggressive when they get bigger so be careful when mixing with Cories

In your 16 gallon tank you can have almost 7-10 platies.

mare2009

Hi Aqualung You may be going over your limit, only because your platy's will get BIG. And also its a very good idea to have one or the other sex ( male or female) having fry would not be good in a 16G tank along with the all the other tank mates.
Then again..if your diligent in the water changes, and your tank is cycled..its a close call. Try to have all the same sex though
( Personally, it would be too many )

kimb

Agree with Mare, I think that is too many. Platys like to swim, and some easily reach 2 inches.

Nick G

I have 4 inch Platies in my 39gal.

kimb

Wow...never saw them that big...but even at 2", I think too many in 16g. Mine are all over the place all the time...almost as crazy as my danios!

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore!!!!

im with nick...i have 3 inch platies..they are huge....I would stick with the 3 platies you have, 3 -4 more ottos, then your neons and leave it at that....you dont need cories with ottos in that small of a tank.....they would always be fighting for food....

gonzo127

i agree with being carefull with platies (although i love the little swines) i had them to start of with and boy can they breed!

i started with only 2-3 in my 16 gal tank like you have however withing 2 months i had 20 due to breeding and it just went mad from there to the point where i had to buy a second tank to take out all of the males and then slowly week by week take the fry to the fish store once they where big enough that they would accept them

however due to not always spotting the males stright away i ended up maxxing out at about 60 platies in my two tanks and had to do water changes every couple of days on each of them due to the emense overstocking in the tanks and it took me nearly 8 months to finally get back to my correct stocking levels. that being said i only lost 3 of them (that i know of) in all that time

but good luck with everything, Platies are such loverly fish to watch as they just have so much energy and are beautiful just keep and eye out for fry

Craig-D

I think you'll be overstocking your tank if you added 3 additional platies to your planned stock. Platies mostly don't get very long (over 2" is unusual, but possible as noted in the above posts), but they are a relatively big-bodied fish and they are huge waste producers. If I were you, I'd stick with the 3 platies you already have and the planned 7 neons. If you must have bottom feeders in addition to that you can get 4 panda cories, which get no bigger than 1-1.5". Cories need to be in groups to thrive, so just 1 is not advisable. 3 platies, 7 neons, and 4 pandas would put you right around your 1" of fish per gallon of water limit.

If you really want additional platies, I would suggest balloon platies. I have one and they are much smaller than standard platies. Mine is .5" and will likely max out at 1". Good luck finding one though, as they are very rare.

aqualung

thanks guys very helpful , it will be a little while before i get more fish cause i want to see the effect on my water from the 4 fish i just added (3 neons and 1 oto) then i'll get the others
its awesome so far, all the fish i have get along great together the platys feed at the top and the neons catch the food on the way down and then they all start picking the bottom for leftovers
its the first aquarium i've had without a bully fish chaseing others around all the time