Panda Platy - Xiphophorus maculatus

The funny colored black and white Panda Platy reminds really strongly of the cute little bears from China. The base color of this great color variation of Xiphophorus maculatus is white, the markings on the head and the base of the caudal fin are black. The iris of the eye is silvery white, the fins are also white. Sporadically, the Panda Platy may still have tiny black speckles and slightly larger black spots on the white base.
Xiphophorus maculatus is part of the large family of viviparous toothcarps, which is very popular in aquaristics. In their natural biotopes, platies or mirror carps are found in shallow muddy standing water connected to flowing water. The robust and easy to maintain mirror carps have been kept in the aquarium hobby for a very long time. These aquarium fish are so closely related to the swordtails, which are also very popular, that they can interbreed. Therefore, the two species should not be kept together. The also incredibly popular guppies and mollies are among their slightly wider relatives, but do not interbreed with platies.

Male Panda Platies reach a body length of about 3.5 to 4 cm, females grow up to 6 cm long. The females have a rounder body shape, the males can be recognized quite well by their gonopodium: They have an elongated sexual appendage at the base of the tail, to which the anal fin is transformed.

Platies love the security that only a group of conspecifics can give. We recommend a troop of at least 10 of these ornamental fish. If you do not want to breed specifically one color, you can mix the color strokes as you like - Panda Platies recognize even the most colorful conspecifics as such. In addition, Panda Platys like a well planted aquarium from 60 cm edge length, and need medium to hard water. A GH of 5 to 25 °dGH and a KH of 5 to 20 °dKH as well as a pH value between 7 to 8.5 have proven themselves. The water temperature should be 18 to 28 °C.

In Panda Platies, females give birth to live young as live-bearing toothcarps. Panda Platy females also store the sperm of the male after a successful mating and can thus become pregnant several more times without new contact with males. Therefore, even in pure female groups, young can still be born. A litter includes about 10-80 fry, which grow quickly and have a real chance of becoming large in well-planted aquariums. Adult Panda Platies will prey on the fry, but they can hide well in dense stands of plants.

Since platies sleep near the bottom, they should not be kept in the aquarium with large crayfish. It is possible that the crayfish will injure or even catch and eat the platies at night. In a community aquarium with other fish, the Panda Platy fits very well, and larger shrimp such as Amano shrimp or small dwarf crayfish from the genus Cambarellus go well with them. If you add a dwarf shrimp species that is robust and reproduces well, and if the aquarium is very well planted and offers many hiding places, even a socialization with dwarf shrimp for example of the genus Neocaridina or with Sulawesi land shrimp would be possible.

Panda Platies are omnivores and love both plant and animal foods: they will take frozen and live foods such as cyclops, enchytraea, water fleas, artemia and artemiauplia, red, black and white mosquito larvae and other insect larvae, but they will also happily eat scalded soft vegetables and pluck at algae. Panda Platies are really not picky, they like just about any food and can be fed well on flake food and granular food.

Our plant recommendation: Use for planting NatureHolic InVitros. These are free of snails, planarians and other unwanted co-inhabitants. Also free of algae spores, bacteria and fungi.

Expert Tip: We recommend for fish keeping the NatureHolic 3 Phase Liquid. The care set offers the best all-round protection for your animals. It ensures optimal conditions for successful breeding and keeping.