Oh and while ur at it... lol, I'm such a nOOb... I have a male platy that's kinda sluggish and has some white scales and his gills are kinda whitish. I don't think it's the temperature of the tank, though cuz it's at 80 F. Is anything wrong with him, or is he just old?

Do a fish sickness/disease search on yahoo and identify if it is a parasite (like ich) or bacterial (dropsy etc.).Sounds like sickness so you may have to isolate and treat or possible euthanize. DO NOT add any fish until you have identified it. And when everything is fine a betta "may" do OK with platy's, I had one with no problems, however platys can get bullish so be prepared for seperation if needed.

You can feed platys and betta a mixed diet of vegtable flake and bloodworms,special betta mix etc.. If the platys are quicker to the food and don't allow the betta to eat drop in some food and when the platyus swarm drop pieces to the betta when he is hanging off to the side.

Platies are brackish water fish, while bettas are freshwater fish. Although bettas can adjust to a higher salinity, it's best to keep platies and bettas apart, and put some other livebearer in with the platies instead.

Minaku is wrong. Don't worry, platies are NOT brackish, and can live with bettas unless they are sick. Your fish probably has fungus or ich, based on if the white stuff is spots or growths. BTW, I am getting 2 platies today, and cannot remember sleeping last night. As for the food, I've been asking myself the same question.

Here is a link that might be useful: Betta care & advice