[UnderseaGal]

On a whim, I just picked up two rainbow platies to add to my frog tank. I find them to be beautiful, colorful fish, they seem friendly with everything in the tank, and they are quite interactive.
So I'm left wondering: why aren't they more popular?
I've been on this forum for quite some time and rarely seem them listed in tank set-ups.

I'm considering adding some to my other tank but I thought I'd ask around first, in case there's something I should know!

Are they too common? Too fragile? Too boring?
Why no platy love?

 

[Pamela]

I had some platy's before and they were okay fish. A pro or con, depending how you look at it, is that they are prolific breeders. I ended up with way too many of them. One thing that I didn't like about platy's is that they are big pigs at feeding time and it was hard for some of my other fish to get enough food.

 

[April]

Well I recommend them for beginners with small tanks instead of goldfish as they are hearty, kids love it when they have babies and they get along with most fish. I always thought they were useless..but I've come to enjoy them. Heartier than guppies and not as large as swords .

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I too like platys. I bought some at the VAHS auction a while back for my daughter's class fish tank and there are now a bunch of babies (after I took dismantled and took home the tank for the summer). I think its the fact that there aren't a whole line of specialty platies or fancy platies with fancy names, so people see them as run of the mill bread-and-butter fish. Guppies have their specialty breeders who give these also "bread-and-butter" fish more attention from aquarists because they develop and breed special strains and colour varieties.

 

[UnderseaGal]

Thanks for your input, everyone.
Pamela - I know what you mean about the whole piggy thing.
April & SeaHorse_Fanatic - glad you like them too. I guess they are a bit "run of the mill", but for someone with small tanks like me who likes to see some colour, they seem ideal.
There seem to be quite a few varieties out there, but yeah, nothing like guppies.
I like the black and white ones myself... Perhaps my next purchase!

 

[coppercloud]

I had a few platys, they were the black and white ones, I think they called them pandas. I cannot for the life of me keep them alive for more then a few months. Im waiting until I set up a brackish tank to get back into livebearers.