# Thinking About Breeding Platies



## ScurvyGoat (Dec 1, 2011)

I have several beautiful color morphs and there are two in particular that catch my eye: the "Bumblebee" and "Red Tiger". Currently I have 1:1 Bumble and 1:3 Tiger in a 55 community tank. Fry don't stand much chance in there, plus there are a few other kinds of platies. I've never bred anything at all before so I'm quite a rookie. My male Bumble has beautiful markings with a splash of red on each side. I'm very curious to see what the fry of a Bumble x Tiger pairing would be. I don't know of platy genetics which is why I've come here. Would I get a stunning cross or would one pattern dominate the other? Or could I even end up with some strange cross that looks nothing like the parents? My Tigers have Mickey's, by the way. I want a cross between the two but if that's not possible I'll shelve my ideas of breeding. I don't want to breed for the sake of breeding and all that. Thoughts? I have nothing set up or in stone, simply doing my research. Thank you in advance!!!


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

In order to breed them to see how they would turn out you would need seperate them into another tank, Your biggest chance of getting some to look like parents is this way only. You would have to make sure you have a female that as not bred, which is hard to do unless you have fry to growout some. Female livebearers can carry sperm for 6 months is the reason of raising your own female.


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## ScurvyGoat (Dec 1, 2011)

I was planning on seperating them if I chose to breed. I don't want to start shuffling fish around if I decide I don't want to. The less stress the better. I don't know what genes are dominant and what are recessive. All I know is Mickey's turn up all the time. That's why I've come here first before anything else.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Without knowing the possible genetics of the particular fish it would be hard to say. With platies there is such a multitude of combinations that even if you had a pair that has never been bred you could still come up with several combinations.


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## ScurvyGoat (Dec 1, 2011)

Mkay, thank you! I'm gonna think about this some more before I make a decision. I'm still on the fence. Surprisingly my mum told me to just go ahead if I want to- she was against breeding when I first started getting platies! I didn't get them intending to breed.


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