Platies: Is this okay?

I originally asked my LFS for 3 platies, 2 females, 1 male...after much research (and thanks for the pics here!) I was able to see that the guy got the fish sexes backwards and gave me 2 males and 1 female....so I noticed my female was hiding a LOT and the minute she would come out one of the boys would chase her back into hiding...so I bought another female and that seems to be helping somewhat...anyhow my question is: Is 2 of each sex okay? I really don't want a big tankful of platies and I hate to have to get rid of any of them. I get really attached pretty quick to my fish =/ It's a 29 gallon tank btw with 6 zebra danios, 3 ottos and 1 blue mystery snail.

 

I originally asked my LFS for 3 platies, 2 females, 1 male...after much research (and thanks for the pics here!) I was able to see that the guy got the fish sexes backwards and gave me 2 males and 1 female....so I noticed my female was hiding a LOT and the minute she would come out one of the boys would chase her back into hiding...so I bought another female and that seems to be helping somewhat...anyhow my question is: Is 2 of each sex okay? I really don't want a big tankful of platies and I hate to have to get rid of any of them. I get really attached pretty quick to my fish =/ It's a 29 gallon tank btw with 6 zebra danios, 3 ottos and 1 blue mystery snail.

I'd check the adult size of the Danios and Ottos and see how many platys you can fit in.. if you have 2 males, 4 females should keep the balance. You're wanting platy fry?

 

I originally asked my LFS for 3 platies, 2 females, 1 male...after much research (and thanks for the pics here!) I was able to see that the guy got the fish sexes backwards and gave me 2 males and 1 female....so I noticed my female was hiding a LOT and the minute she would come out one of the boys would chase her back into hiding...so I bought another female and that seems to be helping somewhat...anyhow my question is: Is 2 of each sex okay? I really don't want a big tankful of platies and I hate to have to get rid of any of them. I get really attached pretty quick to my fish =/ It's a 29 gallon tank btw with 6 zebra danios, 3 ottos and 1 blue mystery snail.

I'd check the adult size of the Danios and Ottos and see how many platys you can fit in.. if you have 2 males, 4 females should keep the balance.  You're wanting platy fry?

I would llike some fry, but not a lot. I basically just wanted them to be able to act as naturally as possible, and I certainly won't cry over it if no fry survive, but if they did, welll my son wants his own tank so they would go to him. I just want to be sure that 2 males with 2 females would be okay and not too stressful on the females. The Danios are almost full grown already 1.5-2.0" each and the ottos only get max 1.5" each so they are both very small fish.

 

I would llike some fry, but not a lot. I basically just wanted them to be able to act as naturally as possible, and I certainly won't cry over it if no fry survive, but if they did, welll my son wants his own tank so they would go to him. I just want to be sure that 2 males with 2 females would be okay and not too stressful on the females. The Danios are almost full grown already 1.5-2.0" each and the ottos only get max 1.5" each so they are both very small fish.

Those platys love to pump out fry.. 2 more females would be best to maintain the 2 to 1 ratio, especially when one of the females drops a batch of fry and can be weak & not able to move around a lot.. the males will tend to pick on pregnant females at times, trying to get them to abort the fry & drop them as snacks and the females can get touchy with each other too then. once one of the females is pregnant, she'll drop up to 6 batches of fry.. I hear up to 100 per batch, but ours only had 18 her last batch. with males & females in the tank, all the females will probably be pregnant soon - those platy are major breeders. You could put the females in a tank for your son, getting him 2 more and keep 4 males in the main tank. From what I've seen, they'll act just as naturally (we have 4 females) with their schooling behavior and be more peaceful with just the 1 sex in the tank. Even 3 males in your tank & 3 females in your son's tank should encourage their normal schooling behavior, he'd get the tank he wants & you'd just have the same amount of platy in your tank as now.

LOL, I had to tell the guy at the Petco here how to tell the males from females, i'm not surprised they got them backwards for you. Good luck with whatever arrangement of platys you settle on.

 

I had the same problem here at Petco, they "claimed" that it wasn't possible to tell the sex, and when I got home I realized I had 2 male and 1 female. I realized it as soon as I released them from the bag. In my case I took the male back to the store and was again told by another person that their was no reliable way to sex them, even after I explained how to them. In the end they let me net my own fish, which of course was the female I wanted.

After hearing so many other stories similar to this, I think they do this intentionally. They know that anyone who does some research will want twice as many females as males. If this is what they sold to everyone, what would they do with all those extra males?

 

Well the hiding female didn't make it. I found her dead this morning hiding in a clump of Java Fern. I can't see anything wrong with her at all. She was even out swimming around last night and eating with the others. Water tests came back fine (Ammonia/Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0-5.0) and all of the other fish are behaving normally.

 

Well the hiding female didn't make it. I found her dead this morning hiding in a clump of Java Fern. I can't see anything wrong with her at all. She was even out swimming around last night and eating with the others. Water tests came back fine (Ammonia/Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0-5.0) and all of the other fish are behaving normally.

i'm sorry to hear that. poor girl.

 

Sorry that she didn't make it. I'm sorry to hear that.