miraloma

Hi, I'm a beginner in this game. I bought some fish from the store by choosing what color I like. Now I have trouble trying to figure out how to set my aquarium properly. Could someone help me identify what kind of fish I have? I think the orange and black one is a platy and the red and yellow ones are guppies. Any idea whether they are male or female? Thanks in advance!

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0morrokh

You're correct, the orange and black one (the color is called sunset wag, wag=black fins) is a Platy and the other two are Gups. Both Guppies are males. I think the Platy is a female but it is a bit unclear from the pics. The trick is to look at their anal fin (the unpaired fin on the bottom). In females the anal fin is large and fan-shaped while in males it is modified into a pointy tube called a gonopodium. Males are also smaller and slimmer (and in Guppies they are much more colorful than the females).

miraloma

Thanks! Yeah, the anal fin on the platy is pretty big. Do guppies and platys cross breed? The red guppy is "bothering" the platy.

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Chief_waterchanger

Guppies and platies can not crossbreed and produce viable offspring. They can probably have intercourse in the attempt to breed, but they are from different genera (plural of genus) and have different chromosome counts. Differing chromosome counts in mates would cause the fry to not develope properly and be naturally aborted if they begin to form at all.

COBettaCouple

you have some pretty fish there. how big is your tank?

miraloma

I have the AquaVista 500, which is a 26"x26"x4.5" wall-hanging tank. It holds 6.6 gallons of water. It's very deceptive how "small" my tank actually is. Having the 3 fish seems like I'm understocking the tank. However, people (on FishLore) have been telling me that my tank is too small even for my 2 guppies and 1 platy.

COBettaCouple

i just read one of your other posts describing the tank and you're within the bioload of the tank now but it's mostly full and 1 more fish will fill it unfortunately.

it is a very cool tank, just not a lot of water, so the bioload is small.

Chief_waterchanger

Yeah, it really is best for the fish to have plenty of space as well as low bioload levels in the tank.

You are being a responsible fishkeeper by not giving in to the urge to add more.

Bioload is there pee and poo. They have no way for that to get out other than waterchanges. So once a week or so someone pulls out all of their poo and most of their pee, but they go a week with that in the tank. Kinda like breathing in ammonia for a week, so the less ammonia there is to breath the better they are. Understocking and not overfeeding lead to healthy long lifespans (long is a relative term since some commonly kept fish even under prime conditions only live a few years) and prettier fish.

I commend you on being a responsible keeper.