Temps in my new Tank + Platy Question!

[m1ndless]

How do I distinguish between male and female platys? A few of mine seem to be "fat" so I was not sure if they are preggo or not.

Also, the biggest platy in the tank seems agressive when its feeding time, I have seem him pretty much steal food from other fish, he is always overstuffed and looks fat, but I am worried the other fish aren't getting enough food due to this, any way to fix this?

Also, my temps stay at 76-78 without using the heater, I will turn it on sometimes to get it closer to 80 and it will stay up there for most of the day, but is the heater even needed?

[Tolley]

heres a good pic on sexing them. [Only Registered Users Can See Links.] (not mine) See the one on top is missing a bottom fin called an anal fin (compared to bottom fish) and instead has a stick like thing called a gonopodium. The male is the top the female is the bottom.

Platies are very greedy fish which can easily get bloated by eating too much. I wouldnt worry about the others they will be getting more than enough. Maybe even feed a bit less to not bloat the big one.

Look at this pic, [Only Registered Users Can See Links.] (not mine again) You see the dark area behind the guppy's stomach. Thats called a gravid spot. THis means your female is pregnant.

Your temperature is perfect for your platies so i would not worry about a heaterfor now. But i would watch it on cold days and have one in the tank unplugged just incase.

[Sasquatch]

Tolley's got some good info there about sexing them. When fully mature the females will be much larger than the males. The females are also much greedier since they are constantly pregnant, so they need more food to produce the babies.

You can check out the galleries in my sig, there are a bunch of platy photos in there, the Tuxedo is the male ... you can kinda see the gonopodium, it has a white tip.

As for your temp, it's fine. I'd still recommend a heater though, just to make sure that if the temperature goes down, your tank will remain stable.

[fraggle]

If you have your heater on and the tank temp is above what it is set at, it won't turn on, it'll only turn on when it drops below the temp it's set at. I agree with Sasquatch, I'd nearly have one in there so that if it does get cold, it's not going to affect the tank and it keeps it at the right temp. Don't want a sudden drop in temperature to kill of your fish!