Platy Breeding Ratio

My breeding problem with my platy fish has gotten pretty severe and I haven't been able find anyone who wants them in the last 6 months, causing more overcrowding. I have an extra 20 gallon tank right now with 29 females and 8 males, and I was wondering what the best ratio would be to discourage breeding.
I have tried an all male tank before and there was too much aggression, so that isn't an option for me. I would really appreciate any advice you could possibly have to help with this.

 

If you could do an all female tank with "virgin" females, that would be good, or remove all your males and after a few months your females will stop dropping fry.
To get rid of the overcrowding, LFS will often take unwanted fish so long as they are healthy. I think petco does this too. Alternatively you can post on Craigslist

 

If you could do an all female tank with "virgin" females, that would be good, or remove all your males and after a few months your females will stop dropping fry.
To get rid of the overcrowding, LFS will often take unwanted fish so long as they are healthy. I think petco does this too. Alternatively you can post on Craigslist

I'm doing weekly posts on Craigslist, but over the last couple months no one has been interested in them. I think I'll have to consider asking my local Petco if they'll take some if I don't have any luck over the next week or two.
I'm surprised I never considered the all female tank idea, but I'll definitely be doing that instead. Thanks for the help!

 

I'm doing weekly posts on Craigslist, but over the last couple months no one has been interested in them. I think I'll have to consider asking my local Petco if they'll take some if I don't have any luck over the next week or two.
I'm surprised I never considered the all female tank idea, but I'll definitely be doing that instead. Thanks for the help!

No problem with an all female tank, just (1) make sure they actually are all female... and (2) keep in mind that live bearers can store sperm for a few months so expect a few more batches of fry before you have the all-female, no-more-fry tank

 

Feeding regularly encourages breeding, so you could try feeding a lot less / infrequently. When I'm not paying attention to breeding my fish (swordtails and platys), I rarely feed them, they find enough algae in the tank to survive, but when I want fry, I start feeding them everyday

 

Sometimes the best approach is a hard one - add a genial fish you like that, umm, likes platys. If you choose right, fry will still make it, but not quite as many. The alternative is you end up with so many fish nothing grows, and you lose them all.
A platy only has to be fertilized once to produce up to 6 broods. In effect, one 'hit' and they are gravid for life.
I've encountered your problem a few times - you reach a point where everyone who wants the fish has it, stores won't take them, and they just keep coming.

 

Feeding regularly encourages breeding, so you could try feeding a lot less / infrequently. When I'm not paying attention to breeding my fish (swordtails and platys), I rarely feed them, they find enough algae in the tank to survive, but when I want fry, I start feeding them everyday

I feed them two times a day at the moment, so what would you recommend I should feed them instead?

Sometimes the best approach is a hard one - add a genial fish you like that, umm, likes platys. If you choose right, fry will still make it, but not quite as many. The alternative is you end up with so many fish nothing grows, and you lose them all.
A platy only has to be fertilized once to produce up to 6 broods. In effect, one 'hit' and they are gravid for life.
I've encountered your problem a few times - you reach a point where everyone who wants the fish has it, stores won't take them, and they just keep coming.

I've heard angelfish work but there's no way one could live comfortably in the 20 gal tanks. Is there a smaller fish about the size of a platy that could eat the fry?

 

I feed them two times a day at the moment, so what would you recommend I should feed them instead?


I've heard angelfish work but there's no way one could live comfortably in the 20 gal tanks. Is there a smaller fish about the size of a platy that could eat the fry?

I feed my fish once a day, and skip one day a week or feed peas instead.

I know bettas will eat fry, but they aren't the best tank mates lol... your platies might eat their own fry if they are hungry (don't feed them for a few days and lots of fry will vanish)

 

I would drop the temperature to slow breeding to about 20-22c.
What temperature are they currently at?

Platies will eat their own fry, just not enough of them. Right now adding fish is not going to help at all. Dojo loaches are the most effective fry eaters but they need 60 gallons+

 

I would drop the temperature to slow breeding to about 20-22c.
What temperature are they currently at?

Platies will eat their own fry, just not enough of them. Right now adding fish is not going to help at all. Dojo loaches are the most effective fry eaters but they need 60 gallons+

The temperature is around 77 F .

I feed my fish once a day, and skip one day a week or feed peas instead.

I know bettas will eat fry, but they aren't the best tank mates lol... your platies might eat their own fry if they are hungry (don't feed them for a few days and lots of fry will vanish)

I'll try not feeding them as much then. Thanks for the help!

 

BottomDweller beat me to it, I was also going to mention to drop the temperature (Mine were actually bred in cold water over generations). You can drop the feed to one big feed once a week, or even less, but seeing as you have a lot of fish in the tank I wouldn't drop it any further, as they'll quickly run out of other food sources (algae etc) with so many competing for it. You'll know what's right for your fish though if you keep a close eye on their appearance -you don't want to see any sunken bellies, although they may get a bit thinner with less feeding. Basically when they're fat (like in my avatar pic), they're in their breeding prime.

 

BottomDweller beat me to it, I was also going to mention to drop the temperature (Mine were actually bred in cold water over generations). You can drop the feed to one big feed once a week, or even less, but seeing as you have a lot of fish in the tank I wouldn't drop it any further, as they'll quickly run out of other food sources (algae etc) with so many competing for it. You'll know what's right for your fish though if you keep a close eye on their appearance -you don't want to see any sunken bellies, although they may get a bit thinner with less feeding. Basically when they're fat (like in my avatar pic), they're in their breeding prime.

How far down should I drop the temperature? I have it at around 77 F

 

I'd drop it gradually, I really don't know what the temps are in my tanks as I don't keep thermometers in them anymore, when I did though they ranged anything from 30c in summer right down to 10c in winter (I'm in Australia), my fish were bred in these extreme temperature ranges though. I noticed the other day in a pet shop it said 22C was the perfect temp for them, so I'd probably go with 20c -22c (about 68F -72F) as BottomDweller advised.

 

I'd drop it gradually, I really don't know what the temps are in my tanks as I don't keep thermometers in them anymore, when I did though they ranged anything from 30c in summer right down to 10c in winter (I'm in Australia), my fish were bred in these extreme temperature ranges though. I noticed the other day in a pet shop it said 22C was the perfect temp for them, so I'd probably go with 20c -22c (about 68F -72F) as BottomDweller advised.

Thanks for the help!

 

No problem, I'd drop the feed gradually too so it's not such a shock to them (every second day for a week, then every 3rd, 4th day etc.). I wondered too if you've ever tried to sell them to pet/aquarium shops? You might be able to offload some excess in the meantime that way, might be worth a try