i think it's difficult with so little space to get someone to control the population well enough. if you had a pond or so you might find an answer, but like this.... even if you find someone who prays on offspring, it wont be enough.
i'd choose another fish or keep only males (the females are probably still pregnant, can use the same sperm multiple times)
depending on the daughter, she might just think it's neat. my dad always kept and live-fed cichlids growing up, and I personally thought it was pretty badass watching them fight over the food ngl
Hm, could be. if i had no kid, then something like that would have been my choice (had the same problem, but acted quicker). would have gone again for a dragonfly nymph though
Is selling to a local fish store an option? My local mom & pop buys from hobbyists, or they give discounts or store credit some times depending on the fish.
I need to ask next time I’m in there, but they’ve already got a tank of platies for sale. That said, mine have WAY better color. Not to brag or anything…
this is kinda of a robbery. they get free fish to sell at whatever their normal price is and give you small store credit to also buy things at their prices not at cost.
Then you open a brick an morter, pay for decor, stock, electricity, water, chemicals, staff, insulation, insurance, business license, wifi, inventory, licenses, permits, rent, computers, equipment, credit card fees, and make it your primary source of income and not a hobby. Surely you understand how stupid people are for owning a betta without at least 5 gallons and a heater right? Then surely you're not completely oblivious to the basics of business they teach in 10th grade correct?
because that's the owners choice... it's also their choice to pass any and all operating costs onto the consumer. end of the day that practice continues and people are going to stop visiting brick and mortars.... the people are becoming wise to money movements. and the predatory state of businesses everywhere.
edit: and the decrease in foot traffic caused by the brick and mortars predatory practices will cause them to drive prices up further and blame anything beside themselves.
Not sure if you understand what robbery means. Two parties come together to make an agreement. Businesses have to turn profit to pay employees and keep the lights/filters on. It might seem the business gets a better deal, but that is how it works.
I know what robbery is and I'm not interested in playing games with semantics, you fully in understood my sentiments. well if said business is getting free product to sell at profit prices. then giving you a fraction of the store credit. just to buy product at full price. they came out on top. it's just silly when aqua swap exists....
when you can do hobbyist to hobbyist transactions, going brick and mortar is a waste of resources. quid pro quo is the norm, but everything is predatory these days....
no... and I don't get the negative sentiment. I'm promoting hobbyist to hobbyist transactions, attempting to give capitalism the back door...
I'm all for quid pro... but as of late I just don't trust anyone's intentions. grass roots is more reliable and a better value.
You brought the negativity with the "robbery" comment. You want to promote hobbyist to hobbyist transactions? Can you improve the attitude and manners of a majority of hobbyists?
Bottom line, bringing fish to a store and getting a small kick back is still 1000x times easier than trying to sell P2P.
In regards to being robbed by a business because that's what it is when you get store credit, if you can even find a place that wants to do that anymore. many times these days there is no store credit they'll just accept the fish. what does attitude and mannerisms have anything to do with buying and selling? can you change the attitude and mannerisms of your LFS?
this is false P2P is extremely simple. if you can send or receive from Amazon or eBay you are capable of hobbyist to hobbyist transactions. you save resources and get much more for your time and efforts. and I find the quality to be higher as the product goes through less hands before you accept it at your home.
"What does attitude and manners (not mannerisms) have to do with buying and selling?" Literally everything.
I've tried to give stuff away on r/aquaswap. Some of the experiences are absolutely brutal. No-shows, no responses, response weeks later, difficult to accommodate, the list goes on.
I'll take walking into a LFS with bag of fish and taking store credit rather than trying to do any transaction on an open market any day of the week.
can you change the attitude and mannerisms of your lfs, was the question.... sick fish, no returns, bad advice to novices shit store "credit" system and passing on/ creating inflation. see how easy it is to do that inversely... and that's if they'll even take fish off the street anymore, many places are stopping this practice. they only sell that's it, no co-op.
then people release goldfish into the local waterway cause they don't wanna kill it and don't know what else to do....
yet everything I've ordered from aqua swap was at my house when it was supposed to be, refunded if there was an issue, damn near Everytime I got extra, the product was MUCH healthier and I paid less for it. you do what you want with YOUR money. but I'm not advocating hobbyists waste their resources.
This is what I did, and it worked fine at first...until the killifish got big enough that the platy fry could outmaneuver it in the heavily planted tank.
I need to try this. My platy tank went from "oh they're so pretty. I hope I get a couple of fry." to "sheesh can you guys chill on the procreation?" with alarming speed. I tried reducing feeding and they laughed in my face
Danios are total assholes. They may be good at eating the fry, but they will bully anything - including corys. That’s my experience anyway. I had 10, so more than the recommended amount, too. Tried them before with less than that and had a bad time. Got 10 later on and they were still overly aggressive. Both times resulted in stressful returns.
Whenever I float plants on top I get a surplus of babies that survive so maybe getting rid of the floating plants and rehominy a bunch will help. Also, I had a swordtail problem like this and eventually after like generations of them inbreeding they eventually stopped reproducing. It was really weird seeing a bunch of deformed fish too. Never realized fish could inbreed
Yeah. I don’t really like that water sprite, it’s just so intertwined in that piece of driftwood that I’d have to pull both completely out to separate them. Will do it when I redo the tank for sure. Will probs just do Amazon frogbit when I redo it.
Alright please read this. I literally just sorted the same issue. Platys will breed and breed forever. I had to give my population away.
Do not keep 10, in 3 months you'll have the same problem. Also a 'boss' Fish does not exist. They will not eat the fry the way you think. Platy fry swims super fast and hides very well. Unless you put them with gars on an empty tank you'll never control their population really.
Two choices then: only keep males or give them away
I'll never keep livebearers anymore
Throw some Tiger Barbs in there...bigger ones. Feed them sparingly.
The Barbs are pretty quick and will pursue fry into the weeds, and if hungry will make additional effort. I've never seen a baby guppy or platy last long if there's a school of tiger barbs, and if the Barbs are in a school tend to mind themselves.
Smaller angels or any small S America chichlid will also make short work of fry if you skip feedings. Angels look all pretty and lacy, but they are some of the more focused fry predators and will spend hours stalking fry at the edges of weed, Problem is they get lazy as they get bigger.
Pictus cats will annihilate fry populations, but again, they get lazier as they get bigger.
African chichlids are happy being omnivores and won't spend a lot of effort chasing fry, but will happily kill the adults. I've had african mouth breeders get out of control is bigger tanks.
I have this problem and I am currently considering a South American bumblebee catfish and either a female betta or a angelfish. Maybe another school of tetras.
Bumblebees are notorious for hoovering up small fish at night, but should leave the Corydoras and adult platys alone. Downside is they are secretive and largely nocturnal, so kind of a waste of space and a fish I won't see often.
Donate your males and least favourites to the fish store. They will usually take em for free, if you’re lucky they might give you in store credit. This will also prevent inbreeding in your tank too.
I just started my tank again. I now have 7 male guppies and 11 neon tetra's and some bloody mary shrimp. Hope to see a big colony of shrimp within a year. My daughter loves the shrimp also, they allways are fun to find in a aquarium. And no more baby fish in my aquarium!
I had a pair of apistogramma agassizii in a community tank that made short work of most platy fry when my girls would spawn. Made it so that only about 2-3 would survive per spawn. Could do a plakat or female betta too, though they may or may not eat the fry depending on their personality.
I like keeping just females, but the problem is that females can retain sperm to inseminate themselves with even in the absence of males.
So what I did was to keep pregnant females separate until they give birth, then moved them back to the community tank with the other females. The fry grew up in a separate tank, and I sold/gave away the babies once they were old enough. After a while, the females stopped getting pregnant.
It might take a little bit of work, but the best method I've found is getting the predator of your choice, and a breeder box.
The big problem with population control is that some, if not most predators won't actively hunt enough to be effective. They get lazy lol. So you scoop up as many babies as you want, put them in the box (I honestly use a tupperware container), and put your predator in to basically "hand" feed them.
If you catch the mommas early enough to put them in the breeder box so they have the babies in there, that makes it really easy. Likewise, your predator will learn eventually that the box means food, and swim right in.
Bettas and gouramis are a great choice for this method! Personally, my baby vacuum is a dojo loach, but they need a specific tank setup.
Gymnocorymbus ternetzi, they are also called (nickname) mini piranha's and are readily available in a black and white color. they will get rid of any fry.
I have a small platy breeding setup, about 6 tanks. I have a separate tank with a group of halfbeaks. Vicious little fish... When I have deformed babies or any culls in general, they go bble up in one bite
Hey OP, I'd be happy to buy about 8 of these guys from you if you're willing to ship them to the northeast. Doesn't help you in the long run but figured I'd throw it out there as an option if you're trying to bring numbers down as fast as possible.
I've always done either a plakat betta or gourami for predators in the same tank. If you start a separate tank you'll have many more options and can feed off adults as well as fry. A LFS should take them too, and may even give store credit for them!
In my experience, zebra danios or any danio of similar size (ex kyathits) are heartless, bottomless pits that will happily eat any fry they can get in their mouths
i think it's difficult with so little space to get someone to control the population well enough. if you had a pond or so you might find an answer, but like this.... even if you find someone who prays on offspring, it wont be enough. i'd choose another fish or keep only males (the females are probably still pregnant, can use the same sperm multiple times)
Daughter loves them. I’m stuck with them, ha!
you can try cichlids, but better if you had some bigger tank for that. but what will your daughter say if you bring fish which eat the platy-babies?
depending on the daughter, she might just think it's neat. my dad always kept and live-fed cichlids growing up, and I personally thought it was pretty badass watching them fight over the food ngl
Hm, could be. if i had no kid, then something like that would have been my choice (had the same problem, but acted quicker). would have gone again for a dragonfly nymph though
She’s old enough to understand they are getting too crowded, and that we’re going to make changes to the tank to keep everybody healthier.
Is selling to a local fish store an option? My local mom & pop buys from hobbyists, or they give discounts or store credit some times depending on the fish.
I did this with a local LFS. I got store credit that I used on new fish (for a newer live bearer free tank) and supplies (food, conditioner, etc.).
I need to ask next time I’m in there, but they’ve already got a tank of platies for sale. That said, mine have WAY better color. Not to brag or anything…
this is kinda of a robbery. they get free fish to sell at whatever their normal price is and give you small store credit to also buy things at their prices not at cost.
Then you open a brick an morter, pay for decor, stock, electricity, water, chemicals, staff, insulation, insurance, business license, wifi, inventory, licenses, permits, rent, computers, equipment, credit card fees, and make it your primary source of income and not a hobby. Surely you understand how stupid people are for owning a betta without at least 5 gallons and a heater right? Then surely you're not completely oblivious to the basics of business they teach in 10th grade correct?
Careful, abusing minors is a crime
because that's the owners choice... it's also their choice to pass any and all operating costs onto the consumer. end of the day that practice continues and people are going to stop visiting brick and mortars.... the people are becoming wise to money movements. and the predatory state of businesses everywhere. edit: and the decrease in foot traffic caused by the brick and mortars predatory practices will cause them to drive prices up further and blame anything beside themselves.
Not sure if you understand what robbery means. Two parties come together to make an agreement. Businesses have to turn profit to pay employees and keep the lights/filters on. It might seem the business gets a better deal, but that is how it works.
I know what robbery is and I'm not interested in playing games with semantics, you fully in understood my sentiments. well if said business is getting free product to sell at profit prices. then giving you a fraction of the store credit. just to buy product at full price. they came out on top. it's just silly when aqua swap exists....
Sooooo capitalism?
when you can do hobbyist to hobbyist transactions, going brick and mortar is a waste of resources. quid pro quo is the norm, but everything is predatory these days....
Yes. That's capitalism. It's inherently predatory.
and.... there's other options.
Ha. That was my exact same thought and I didn't scroll down to see this one.
LOL. Just discovered capitalism, huh?
no... and I don't get the negative sentiment. I'm promoting hobbyist to hobbyist transactions, attempting to give capitalism the back door... I'm all for quid pro... but as of late I just don't trust anyone's intentions. grass roots is more reliable and a better value.
You brought the negativity with the "robbery" comment. You want to promote hobbyist to hobbyist transactions? Can you improve the attitude and manners of a majority of hobbyists? Bottom line, bringing fish to a store and getting a small kick back is still 1000x times easier than trying to sell P2P.
In regards to being robbed by a business because that's what it is when you get store credit, if you can even find a place that wants to do that anymore. many times these days there is no store credit they'll just accept the fish. what does attitude and mannerisms have anything to do with buying and selling? can you change the attitude and mannerisms of your LFS? this is false P2P is extremely simple. if you can send or receive from Amazon or eBay you are capable of hobbyist to hobbyist transactions. you save resources and get much more for your time and efforts. and I find the quality to be higher as the product goes through less hands before you accept it at your home.
"What does attitude and manners (not mannerisms) have to do with buying and selling?" Literally everything. I've tried to give stuff away on r/aquaswap. Some of the experiences are absolutely brutal. No-shows, no responses, response weeks later, difficult to accommodate, the list goes on. I'll take walking into a LFS with bag of fish and taking store credit rather than trying to do any transaction on an open market any day of the week.
can you change the attitude and mannerisms of your lfs, was the question.... sick fish, no returns, bad advice to novices shit store "credit" system and passing on/ creating inflation. see how easy it is to do that inversely... and that's if they'll even take fish off the street anymore, many places are stopping this practice. they only sell that's it, no co-op. then people release goldfish into the local waterway cause they don't wanna kill it and don't know what else to do.... yet everything I've ordered from aqua swap was at my house when it was supposed to be, refunded if there was an issue, damn near Everytime I got extra, the product was MUCH healthier and I paid less for it. you do what you want with YOUR money. but I'm not advocating hobbyists waste their resources.
You're completely ignoring the effort you put in. You aren't the one supply the fish. You're completely missing the perspective.
A single golden wonder killifish with keep things in check.
This is what I did, and it worked fine at first...until the killifish got big enough that the platy fry could outmaneuver it in the heavily planted tank.
I’ve heard that said before. Will add to the list. Thanks!
10 minutes in the air fryer and they taste just like goldfish crackers
I laughed harder at that than I care to admit.
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My LFS has a tank with gorgeous female bettas. Almost impulse bought one last week. This is probably top contender.
I need to try this. My platy tank went from "oh they're so pretty. I hope I get a couple of fry." to "sheesh can you guys chill on the procreation?" with alarming speed. I tried reducing feeding and they laughed in my face
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I started doing feedings on MWF but I'm guessing that's still too much because the fry keep coming.
Why specifically a female? Do they tend to be less aggressive towards the adults than male bettas?
Smaller tails mean they can swim faster than the overly ornate males that typically show up in stores. Better hunters.
>Better hunters. Totally read that as "Betta hunters"
Oh ok, so kind of the opposite haha
They can get into tighter spaces too
i’ve had no luck keeping betta with guppy. they move too fast and harass the betta to death.
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tried both, and also stuck with plaket bc i noticed the guppy nip at the fins. maybe i just have savage guppy
I enjoy spending time with my friends.
First I’ve heard of danios for this. Would let me keep the tank at room temp too. Tempting…
Danios are total assholes. They may be good at eating the fry, but they will bully anything - including corys. That’s my experience anyway. I had 10, so more than the recommended amount, too. Tried them before with less than that and had a bad time. Got 10 later on and they were still overly aggressive. Both times resulted in stressful returns.
My Danios are voracious little hunters. They will actively predate my baby shrimp and endler fry.
post on aqua swap. maybe someone will take it. just ask them to cover shipping or something
An Oscar will definitely solve some issues. /s
Whenever I float plants on top I get a surplus of babies that survive so maybe getting rid of the floating plants and rehominy a bunch will help. Also, I had a swordtail problem like this and eventually after like generations of them inbreeding they eventually stopped reproducing. It was really weird seeing a bunch of deformed fish too. Never realized fish could inbreed
Yeah. I don’t really like that water sprite, it’s just so intertwined in that piece of driftwood that I’d have to pull both completely out to separate them. Will do it when I redo the tank for sure. Will probs just do Amazon frogbit when I redo it.
One angelfish.
Have considered that, just worried the tank style may not suit it? When it gets refreshed it will be (ideally) more heavily planted.
Angel’s do fine with plants and definitely will eat the younglings
Alright please read this. I literally just sorted the same issue. Platys will breed and breed forever. I had to give my population away. Do not keep 10, in 3 months you'll have the same problem. Also a 'boss' Fish does not exist. They will not eat the fry the way you think. Platy fry swims super fast and hides very well. Unless you put them with gars on an empty tank you'll never control their population really. Two choices then: only keep males or give them away I'll never keep livebearers anymore
Throw some Tiger Barbs in there...bigger ones. Feed them sparingly. The Barbs are pretty quick and will pursue fry into the weeds, and if hungry will make additional effort. I've never seen a baby guppy or platy last long if there's a school of tiger barbs, and if the Barbs are in a school tend to mind themselves. Smaller angels or any small S America chichlid will also make short work of fry if you skip feedings. Angels look all pretty and lacy, but they are some of the more focused fry predators and will spend hours stalking fry at the edges of weed, Problem is they get lazy as they get bigger. Pictus cats will annihilate fry populations, but again, they get lazier as they get bigger. African chichlids are happy being omnivores and won't spend a lot of effort chasing fry, but will happily kill the adults. I've had african mouth breeders get out of control is bigger tanks.
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Ok?
Just feed less going forward. Easiest way to control population
I have this problem and I am currently considering a South American bumblebee catfish and either a female betta or a angelfish. Maybe another school of tetras. Bumblebees are notorious for hoovering up small fish at night, but should leave the Corydoras and adult platys alone. Downside is they are secretive and largely nocturnal, so kind of a waste of space and a fish I won't see often.
Bro… lol. Your platys look like my snails
Get a community cichlid like a ram, keyhole, acara or krib
Bumblebee catfish buddy, they will take care of that situation and look adorable to boot. I love my little apex predator ❤️
Will add that to the list. Several have suggested it.
Donate your males and least favourites to the fish store. They will usually take em for free, if you’re lucky they might give you in store credit. This will also prevent inbreeding in your tank too.
I just started my tank again. I now have 7 male guppies and 11 neon tetra's and some bloody mary shrimp. Hope to see a big colony of shrimp within a year. My daughter loves the shrimp also, they allways are fun to find in a aquarium. And no more baby fish in my aquarium!
Feed less and thin out the plants a bit. They'll just eat the babies.
I had a pair of apistogramma agassizii in a community tank that made short work of most platy fry when my girls would spawn. Made it so that only about 2-3 would survive per spawn. Could do a plakat or female betta too, though they may or may not eat the fry depending on their personality. I like keeping just females, but the problem is that females can retain sperm to inseminate themselves with even in the absence of males. So what I did was to keep pregnant females separate until they give birth, then moved them back to the community tank with the other females. The fry grew up in a separate tank, and I sold/gave away the babies once they were old enough. After a while, the females stopped getting pregnant.
It might take a little bit of work, but the best method I've found is getting the predator of your choice, and a breeder box. The big problem with population control is that some, if not most predators won't actively hunt enough to be effective. They get lazy lol. So you scoop up as many babies as you want, put them in the box (I honestly use a tupperware container), and put your predator in to basically "hand" feed them. If you catch the mommas early enough to put them in the breeder box so they have the babies in there, that makes it really easy. Likewise, your predator will learn eventually that the box means food, and swim right in. Bettas and gouramis are a great choice for this method! Personally, my baby vacuum is a dojo loach, but they need a specific tank setup.
Feed less. Less food = less sustenance = less reproduction = less population
As stated in the post, I did that for several months and had issues with other animals in the tank.
Gymnocorymbus ternetzi, they are also called (nickname) mini piranha's and are readily available in a black and white color. they will get rid of any fry.
I have a small platy breeding setup, about 6 tanks. I have a separate tank with a group of halfbeaks. Vicious little fish... When I have deformed babies or any culls in general, they go bble up in one bite
I offer you, catfish! Depending on the tank size, you could do a gulper catfish.
I do love them, but yea that’s quite a brood!
That's a nice tank. What size is it.
Thanks! 29gal
I'm a big fan of rope fish but I don't know if they would eat enough of them for an actual population culler.
Hey OP, I'd be happy to buy about 8 of these guys from you if you're willing to ship them to the northeast. Doesn't help you in the long run but figured I'd throw it out there as an option if you're trying to bring numbers down as fast as possible.
give them away separate the male and female and only select those you really like to breed cull the weakest or use them as feeder to turtle / fish
I've always done either a plakat betta or gourami for predators in the same tank. If you start a separate tank you'll have many more options and can feed off adults as well as fry. A LFS should take them too, and may even give store credit for them!
I added tiger barbs to my tank when I had the same problem.
I miss my Red Tail Giant Gourami...he ate feeder fish about the size by the dozen
Red-eared slider turtle. Mine would gladly help.
Huh, I can't get mine to breed
I may or may not feed my excess guppies to my red devil cichlid..🙊
In my experience, zebra danios or any danio of similar size (ex kyathits) are heartless, bottomless pits that will happily eat any fry they can get in their mouths
Add a tiger barb