Is many a good answer? I always liked the "red velvet" swords with the long tails, there hard to find anymore. Raul could give us a history lesson on sword tails.

Well, I haven't been up on my Swordtails for years, since they've seen to have gone downhill as far as what's available.

But for Platies: Red, Gold, Blue, Sunset Wagtails (solid black tail & fins); Red, Gold, Blue, Sunset Orange Solids; Gold, Blue, Sunset Mickey Mouse (black fins & a black tail configuration that looks like the head of Mickey Mouse); Gold, Sunset TwinBar (sometimes black fins, but always black bars along the upper & lower tail fin); Red, Gold, Blue HalfMoons (black fins & a black half moon configuration at the base of the tail). Plus, there are so many hybrids of the above (not to mention many many more variations that I haven't thought of or know of) that the list is probably close to endless.

There are hundreds of types in the wild! and hundreds of variations on the hybrids of the three (two platies and a sword, virtually anyplaty or sword you buy in a fish shop these days will be a hybrid), Don't focus on diversity, focus on what you like.

What I like is diversity.
Colors, sizes, and behavior. Platies are some of the most colorful freshwater community fish to be found. I've also seen some beautiful Guppies lately. Some that you just can't believe the color! ...Keep in mind back in the day, I worked in a fish store and we never had such beautiful guppies. I agree that Swordtails are in a downward spiral, but the Guppies out there seem to me at least, to be getting more beautiful.

-andy

ps. Hope you all are having a wonderful Easter!

I have these fairly new platies (well, about a month old in the tank) that are pale cream to white in the body with light orange to orange in the tail and fins... AND with a couple of black spots spattered across the body towards the back. They are really pretty platies!! They were called "Crystal" platies in this store - but this store is notorious for mislabeling their fish!! (Like labeling lyretails as balloon!! huh??!)

Did you buy a male and female? Any spawning going on there? I hear platties are fairly easy to breed.

-andy

umm... well - I have gouramis and killies in this tank... along with the bettas... so babies tend to be fish food unless they're smart and quick! But I have had platies breeding in the past - in a smaller less diverse sort of tank.

On the other hand - I have mollies and guppies breeding in the another tank!

Do they eat their young? Do you have to seperate them?

Well - killies will eat anything smaller than their mouths!!

I'm kind of a survival of the fittest when it comes to the pond and tanks. Sometimes there will suddenly be a halfgrown platy that seems to have come from nowhere -- essentially one that was quicker than those that may have preyed upon it. That's fine with me - otherwise I'd be setting up new tanks all the time!! :)

Sky, how are those Killies doing?

-andy

I like the Sunburst Platy, yellow body with black fins and tail. I have 4 of them and 2 is orange with yellow fins and tail.

Hi
Love the names of the strains. They've simply run out of words lol. How about ,Red -eyed red hi fin double sword,lyretail. swordtail lol Or Red eyed ,double yellow
lutino pineapple swords lol. of course, i guess the descriptive names are better than names with out meaning like velvet or pineapple mickey mouse or hundreds of others lol
gary

Pequa:

If you like Platies, living as you do next door to the Center of the Universe, there should be any number of fish clubs with primarially fresh water breeders in it's membership in your area.

Attend a few shows and auctions and you will see Platies to die for and- will be able to buy what makes any pet store stock look sick for a tenth of the cost, because when winning breeders sell their "culls", what they are really selling is usually as good as what they exihibit.

Platys are definately in a wider color availability lately. I like them all. If you had a tank full of different types it would hit every color of the spectrum. They breed like all other livebearers, all the time. I have the standard red platy's now. Keep alot of dense plants and the fry will fair well. I have mine in with a betta and some clown loaches. I usually have 8-12+ survivors. I like the wag or tuxedos also.