Hi Cinders....and welcome,
Sorry for the late input but I have been offline for a while due to rustic phonelines and divine intervention!
Anyway, I see you now have your platys...and very pretty they are too
I have blue marble platys and have been very happy with them although my tank has had loads of new additions in the form of their many, many babies! they breed ALL of the time...and then the babies start too
I have been lucky and have a local shop that takes the babies off of me, but I don't think that happens often.
I like the look of your panda platys, I think I might have a look for some of those myself.
I also have otos....aren't they lovely? Sue is right, (she usually is) otos do have a tendancy to suddenly die on you for no apparent reason. It's to do with how they are handled after capture. If they are not fed properly before they reach the fish shop, they reach a point where no matter what food is offered to them, they are unable to start eating again. you need to choose nice plump looking ones or ask at the shop how long they have had them in stock in the hopes that they have had a few weeks in the shops tank and are eating ok. Obviously, this is not a guarantee as they may still last a few weeks longer once you get them home. I lost one of mine about a month after I got them. My others have since got very plump
By the way, you should also not have less than six of them....what a good reason to go out fishy shopping again
I have a nice supply of algae in my tank now, which they munch on all the time, but I also feed algae wafers, mind you the platys and corys love those too.
They also like some courgette now and then. Take a couple of slices and put them in the microwave for 20 seconds or so to soften them, make sure they have cooled and drop them in to the tank. If they float, weigh them down with something, perhaps a small rock if you have any in your tank or a stainless steel fork.
Anyway, good luck with your tank, keep the piccies coming, please.
Resa