i want to breed my fish

Question
how can u tell the difference between male and female fish??? such as severum,cory cats, and plattys

Answer
Hi Scott,
You should look at these great articles....

*Severums*
These beautiful cichlids are best paired up by means of allowing 6-8 individual young fish (say quarter size in body) to grow up together and pair up on their own. Once you have a pair, you'll have to remove the other fish. Give them spawning sites and plenty of good food. It's usually not too difficult to breed Severums. A temperature of 80-86F is best...And never forget the importance of frequent partial water changes. Large smooth rocks are the best spawning sites. Up to 1,000 eggs may be laid the parents fish carefully guard the eggs and fry with the male mostly defending the territory. The fry hatch in 2-4 days and in another few days become free-swimming. They can be fed small live foods and as they get older, they can be provided with powedered flake food.

http://www.worldcichlids.com/fishprofiles/severums.html

http://www.tropicalresources.net/TR_profiles/viewtopic.php?t=148

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*Cory catfish*

~Corys are quite easy to spawn. Females are usually rounder than the males and usually they grow a bit bigger as well in body size. They can usually be triggered to spawn by several individuals being placed in a spawning tank and conditioned on frozen foods like worms and the like. Spawning sites like broad-leaved plastic plants and flower pots are good since the female prefers to stick her eggs to surfaces rather than scatter them as other species of fish do. A few water changes with water that is slightly cooler tends to stimulate rain for the corys can can trigger spawning. With spawning fish it doesn't always work out the first time but keep trying.

http://www.petfish.net/kb/entry/212/

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/breeding/Naus_Breeding_Corydoras.html
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*Platies*
(These fish are extremely easy to breed. Males can be differentiated from the females by their modified anal fin. See a photo here-

_Male platy_
http://www.fishforever.co.uk/images/male2.jpg

_Female platy_
http://www.fishforever.co.uk/images/female.jpg

These fish breed on their own and are very easy to raise. Female platies are pregnant with baby fish and give birth to live fry about once a month. The fry are well-developed and can eat powdered flake food as well as baby brine shrimp and prepared baby fish foods you can find at your petstore. They grow quite fast. The easiest tank setup for Platies is to have about 1 male for every 2-3 females in a well-planted tank (plastic works best but live plants are great) plenty of places for the fry to hide. There they will be safe and majority of your fry will survive. Once they are big enough not to be eaten they will venture out of the shelter of the plants more and more frequently until they are confident enough to swim as a group with the adult fish. With daily 20% water changes and ideally several small feedings a day, they will remain healthy and grow quite fast.

Most female platies are already pregnant when you buy them from the store. You'll know when the females' belly grows rounded and bigger.

Best wishes and I hope this helps!
Karen~