Mickey Mouse platy

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  Red

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  Mickey MouseThis page

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  Wagtail

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  Blue

Care at a glance

Overview

The Mickey Mouse platy is named for a mark, not a color, so shops sell it on gold, white, blue and sunburst bodies. Mixed tanks often ship as Assorted Mickey Mouse, so you pick the pattern and the supplier picks the color. It is a peaceful, beginner-friendly fish for a community tank.

Caring for the Mickey Mouse platy

Mickey Mouse platies do well in a small group, in a tank of at least 10 gal (38 L). Give them a planted tank with some open water to swim in. They keep mostly to the middle of the tank.

They are hardy, forgiving fish. Aim for neutral to slightly alkaline water at 68 to 79°F (20 to 26°C) and a pH of 6.8 to 8.0. They tolerate harder water well. Feed flakes with some algae or vegetable content, and vary the diet with occasional frozen treats.

Mickey Mouse platies are peaceful and mix easily with other calm community fish. Keep more females than males to ease the pressure on the females.

Females grow a bit larger than males. Mickey Mouse platies bear live young and breed readily. A female can store sperm and produce several broods from a single mating.

Good to know

Grading a Mickey Mouse platy comes down to the three spots. A clean round pair over a solid third mark reads as the pattern, and smudged spots are common in bulk stock. The marking sits on the caudal peduncle, the narrow stalk in front of the tail. Its dark, melanin-based marks travel independently of body color, so the same pattern rides on several body colors. The caudal spot patterns are inherited as autosomal traits, so fry from a mixed pairing often split into marked and unmarked siblings.

In the wild

The Mickey Mouse marking was fixed by breeders on domesticated platy stock, and no named originator is on record. The pattern element itself is not an invention. Wild southern platies are polymorphic for these marks, which run from crescent, moon and moon complete to comet, one spot and twin spot. Some wild fish carry no spot at all. Trade platies carry blood from more than one Xiphophorus species, so the fish under the mark is a hybrid.

Common questions

Related species

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