# Dwarf Platies?



## melauriga (Mar 20, 2009)

I just saw some of these at Petsmart. Doing a search on here, I see a few other people have had them. Does anybody know, are they just regular platies selectively bred for small size, or stunted, or what? I'm wondering if they are hardy fish like regular platies or more delicate. And, has anyone had luck breeding them and if so do they breed true?


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## Darksome (Feb 15, 2009)

Are you talking about the sunset platies? They have a sort of gradient it goes from light orange to reddish at the tail and they are under an inch long. If these are the ones then if you are planning on getting some, get a small group of about 4...they seem to school a lot more than other platies and are rather shy. I've kept them in the past but they just died one by one...they were highly susceptible to emaciation...so I just gave up...another small platy you might like are red coral platies...I don't know if you'll find the small variety anymore since of late I've only seen big ones...these are cool as well, except I could never get mine to have babies...which is great if you don't want a small tank to become overcrowded


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## tranr (May 20, 2009)

I haven't heard of the dwarf platy before. I did a quick google search out of curiosity, and it appears that the general consensus is that they are just regular platies with stunted growth.

I would also be wary of getting tropical fish from places like Petsmart or Petco. I have always felt bad for the fish that I've seen at these stores because they often look sick or there will be a number of dead fish in the tank. I have also heard that because of the way the filtering is usually connected along the different tanks, diseases end up rampantly spreading among the various fish available.

Anyway, that's just my two-cents worth on buying livestock from stores like Petsmart and Petco. Maybe yours is different, but the ones that I have been to usually have really sad and sick looking fish - I usually try to go to reputable places that specialize only in fish and where I know that the staff are knowledgeable. Thankfully, there's a few places in the SF bay area that are great for that.


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## melauriga (Mar 20, 2009)

Yeah, here one of the chainstores is MUCH better than the other. One store is full of dead fish, dying fish, angels with no fins, etc. The other does a much better job. The fish are always active and healthy and I have had no problems with fish from them. The only bad thing I have seen there was a beautiful betta stuck in with a pack of blue gouramis.

Unfortunately, there aren't many LFS left within a 2 hour drive and a couple of them aren't much better.


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