Posted by PHSplendens on January 01, 2003 at 12:02:56:
In Reply to: Platies and Pleco?? posted by scottie on December 29, 2002 at 00:28:25:
:ok, i have a question.
: My wife has a 29gal with 4 sets of platies.
:she wants to know why they aren't having fry.
:i did water tests: 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrites, PH is 7.4
:temp is 78. any ideas?
:I was also thinking the pleco in the tank might be eating them.
: should i not have the pleco in the platy tank?
:thanks
: scottie
If you're not removing the pregnant female prior to birth then it would be the platies eating the fry. Also, is she positive she has males and females, and not all males? Males for an anal fin will have what is called a gonopodium that will look something like this :::..... while females will have the normal fan shaped anal fin.
Your wife is going to have a lot more problems than fry being eaten with that pleco in there though. Most plecos that are easily found in stores get to be way too big for a 29-gallon tank, and eventually she will start having water quality problems along with disease and death if she continues to keep the pleco in that tank. Very few plecos, like the bristlenose and the clown, will stay small enough for a tank that size. The others will grow to well over a foot and need a minimum of a 55-gallon tank to themselves, but this would depend upon what type she has, it could be a lot more than 55-gallons. I suggest if she wants algae eating fish in the tank to take the pleco back and get some otocinclus. Oto's only grow to about 2 inches and are better suited for smaller tanks.
PHSplendens
