Mating Platies

Question
My question is when will my platies mate.  I have 2 males and 1 female in my tank.  The female platy is pretty small compared to the other 2 male platies.  But can they still mate? When do they start mating? I also want to know if a silver dollar fish mate with a platy.

Answer
Hi Annie;

Platies are livebearing fish (give birth to live babies) and the males will be constantly in the act of breeding with the female. Your female is probably pregnant already. Female platies normally have babies about every 4 to 6 weeks. You have a slight problem however; You need more females. Those two males are going to overwhelm her with their constant breeding urges and she could get very sick from being stressed and tired. There should be at least two females for every male that you have in your tank. Provide plenty of hiding places for your female until you get some more, or trade one of your males in for a female. Here are some web pages to help you know more about platies;

http://www.fishdeals.com/tips_features/2004/july2.shtml

http://fish.orbust.net/livebearers.html

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/558.htm

Here's a fun one with videos;

http://www.squidoo.com/platy

Silver dollars are a completely different type of fish. They are in the Characin family and are egglayers. They can't breed with platies and they wouldn't even be interested in each other. Silver dollars also need a very large tank of at least 55 gallons because of their potential size. One type grows to be the size of a dinner plate. Yikes!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins