Housing & Care:

Housing requires a minimum of a 2-gallon aquarium per fish. PH level 7.0-8.0, water temperature should range between 63-77 degrees Fahrenheit. You need a water filter, to cleanse the water, and keep it clear, aquarium thermometer, and an aquarium heater. Platies will eat flake, live or frozen fish food, and bloodworms. Platies are peaceful fish; you can mix them with other fish such as neon tetras, mollies, and community fish same size.

Breeding:

To breed livebearer fish you need either a divider for your tank, or a breeder net. The function of the divider and net separates the mother from the babies. Once she has the fry they go into a section that keeps them away from other fish. You can put the mother back into the other part of the tank while the babies are safe until bigger. Feeding is simple; use brine shrimp, or other frozen food for fry. There are other foods that can be used to feed the fry such as flake food that has been crushed into a powder, and liquid food fry for livebearers. The liquid fry food comes in a tube that you can purchase at your local fish store. Feedings need to be done 4 to 5 times a day, and the tank should be cleaned about 3-4 times a week due to the extra feedings.

Platies are one of the easiest tropical fish you can buy for a freshwater aquarium. Whether you are a hobbyist, or looking for another tank mate for your tetras, Platies are a good choice. They come in many color varieties and are hardy.

Cycling Your Freshwater Tank
By PH Splendens

Your first hurdle when setting up a new tank will be to cycle it. This is by far the most difficult hurdle you will face, as it can cause many fish deaths before it’s complete. Someone new to keeping fish will often listen to the pet store employee and end up believing that cycling refers to letting water run through the filter for a few days or weeks. This is not cycling your tank.

Sometimes the same new person will go to the store and buy a new tank, filter, heater, and decorations, but they will also come out with a bag full of fish. No one told them any different, and a lot of pet store employees won’t inform them of the cycle, or they will give them incorrect information. The new aquarium keeper gets the tank home, sets it up, and gets the fish all comfortable in their new home, but the moment they put those fish in the tank is the moment when cycling begins and the moment when things start to become deadly for their fish.

What is cycling if not letting water run through the tank and filter? Cycling refers to the nitrogen cycle, and is a very complex process that takes several weeks to complete. Everyone has heard of the circle of life; consider cycling a new tank a somewhat microscopic circle of life, or an underwater circle of life.

The cycle begins when you add fish to your tank or some other source of ammonia (we will discuss fishless cycling with plain household ammonia at a later time). Fish create waste through feces and through their gills; this waste in turn creates one source of ammonia. Decaying plants and food create other sources of ammonia. Ammonia is the first hurdle in cycling your tank, and it is very toxic to fish as it can cause osmoregulatory damage and death.

By adding too many fish at one time, the aquarium keeper can cause ammonia levels to rise to uncontrollable levels, which in a short time can kill your fish. If you add only one or two hardy fish (such as danios) to start with, then getting control of ammonia levels will become much easier, and can be done by doing water changes when they start to rise above safe levels (.25 parts per million).

This is where a lot of people start to panic, thinking that if they don’t get rid of the ammonia their fish are going to die. A trip to the pet store reveals all sorts of products that claim to reduce or eliminate ammonia, and some that claim to add the proper bacteria to your tank; don’t buy these products. Products such as these can and will do one of three things: They will either stop or slow down the cycling process, they will give some test kits a false reading and end up killing your fish in the short term, or in the case of bacteria in a bottle, they won’t do anything but leave a large hole in your pocket.

Chemicals that reduce ammonia or eliminate it or any other chemicals on the market that claim to do one thing or another, are the fish keeper's worst enemy. The only chemicals you will ever really need are test kits for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH, but even then these chemicals will never come in contact with your fish. Other chemicals would include chlorine or chloramine remover and the occasional medication. Keep anything dealing with your fish as natural as possible.

Once you have a source of ammonia it doesn’t take long before you notice a white cloud has consumed your tank. This cloud is an indication that ammonia-consuming bacteria are present. Ammonia-consuming bacteria do exactly what their name implies; they consume the ammonia in your tank. But this is not the end of your worries. Anything that consumes something, whether it’s mammal, fish, or ammonia-consuming bacteria, will produce waste. That’s right, ammonia-consuming bacteria will produce their own waste, and this waste is called nitrites.

Nitrites are the second hurdle in cycling your tank, and although nitrites aren’t as toxic as ammonia, they are still toxic and can cause nitrite poisoning. Fish that have nitrite poisoning may gasp at the surface or may show rapid gill movement and lethargy. This is often mistaken for low oxygen levels, but unlike low oxygen levels, nitrite poisoning can damage sensitive gill tissue and rapidly kill your fish.

You can reduce the effects of nitrites by adding salt to your tank, however, a lot of fish can’t handle salt. Unless you know your fish isn’t one of them, it’s best not to add it. The best way, as with ammonia, is to do water changes to bring the levels down. Not long after you see a rise in nitrites, you will notice the levels of ammonia steadily decrease until they reach zero. With the presences of nitrites in your tank, it won’t be long before nitrite-consuming bacteria start growing. These bacteria will consume the nitrites in your tank, however, as a result of consuming nitrites, these bacteria will produce a waste called nitrates.

The final stage of cycling is nitrates, and about a week after you see a rise in nitrates your nitrite levels will steadily decrease until they reach zero. Nitrates will always be present in your tank and are pretty much harmless to fish as long as the levels don’t skyrocket. Once ammonia and nitrites have reached zero, your tank is cycled. This whole process can take up to six weeks or more.

So the somewhat microscopic underwater circle of life begins with adding fish, who in return produce ammonia. Ammonia-consuming bacteria grow and consume the ammonia your fish produce, but in return produce nitrites. Nitrite-consuming bacteria grow and consume the nitrites in your tank, and in return produce nitrates. Nitrates will always be in your tank, but for the optimum care of your fish try to keep nitrate levels under 20 parts per million. To keep these levels at a minimum it’s always best to do weekly water changes. Not overstocking your tank and not overfeeding your fish will also help, as well as adding live plants to your tank. Live plants use nitrates as a food source, and although they won’t consume all the nitrates in your tank they will help with keeping them under control and in giving your fish the best environment possible in which to live.

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