Ornamental aquarium fishes > Breeding platies in aquarium tank > Advanced ornamental aquarium breeding and development of new strains of fish
Ornamental aquarium fish breeding and developing new strains of platies is an interesting and rewarding proposition.
In breeding ornamental platies it is challenging to develop new strains.
One word of caution! You require to do lot of hard work and have patience and time for developing new strains. Invest in sufficient number of fish tanks, aerating equipment, heaters, nets and good supply of fairly hard water.
Requirement for ornamental platy fish breeding
| Five numbers of 10 gallon aquarium | one for parent ornamental platies, two for keeping females and raising fry, one for holding selected future males, one for holding selected future females |
| Two numbers of 20 gallon tanks | for growing fry |
| Two 55 gallon aquarium | one as male-grow out tank, one female grow-out tank |
| Heaters | required for all tanks |
| air-lift sponge filters | required for all tanks |
| One wooden or steel rack | to keep the aquarium |
| Thermocol sheets | required numbers to keep below the glass tanks |
| Hand nets | 3 numbers for transferring adult and fry |
| Lighting arrangements | at least in the tanks wherein the adults are kept |
| Test kits and chemicals | Ph test kit, water hardness test kit, pH boosting chemicals, commercial water hardeners, water conditioner (dechlorinator) |
Further you may require a drum or a bin to keep aged water for water exchange for the ornamental aquarium. When using chemicals for treating the water follow the instructions given by the manufacturer.
Always use thermocol sheets below the ornamental for protecting the bottom glass from breakage.
Longer days have been found to be inducible for breeding ornamental platies. Hence light up the parent fish aquarium for about 14 hours.