Crazy behaviour not caused by disease...

[Shananagins]

I have a few baby platies about a month old that sometimes behave strangely. Mainly when they happen to be near each other they hover in one spot and curve their bodies into a sort of "S" shape and basically have a staring contest. It can last for almost a minute at a time. They don't actually try to attack and my adult platies don't do this. I'm sure they are all female, by their fins, and they are basically all the same size. They seem healthy and happy so I have no idea what's up. Any ideas?

 

[Egress]

I have seen some behavior like this in female Swordtails that were kept in a situation without access to a mate. In one instance, a male Ram (also with no access to a mate) would chase one Swordtail around, showing signs of trying to breed. She would respond by turning perpendicular in front of him, bending into something of an S shape. My wild guess is that it is some sort of communication associated with breeding, perhaps a female showing she is receptive.

 

[Shananagins]

Thanks! I wasn't sure because they are all female and only a month old. And maybe I was wrong about them being platies

 

[enadeau12]

im curious as to what they are?

 

[Egress]

I thought my experience with Swordtails would apply simply because they are so closely related to Platies, I wasn't trying to imply they might be Swordtails. Though it's all pretty muddled anyways, commercially available Swordtails and Platies have probably been hybridized in their not too distant past. Some say that any Swordtail that has a red coloration (like the one I was talking about earlier, a koi variety) got that coloration from Platy genetics.

 

[Shananagins]

I do have a female swordtail but she never seems to be pregnant (yes I did hear platies and swordtails easily cross-mate) so I assumed they were platies. You are right they are very similar because I asked the pet shop for platies and I wondered why one female was way bigger than my other females. After researching it I found out it was a swordtail. It also makes sense if platies act like swordtails after seeing how similar they are
Thanks Egress!

 

[musicman]

They may not all be female, it can be quite difficult to tell between a female and a immature male.

 

[Shananagins]

How many months old do they need to be before you can tell?

 

[peaceablegarden]

Seems like I was able to finally tell when they were about 10-12 weeks. They grow so slowly. I have two females from a batch in September and they are still only about half the size of the adults. By the way, my male Mickey Mouse does the 's' thing too.