Help with platys please!

[tintin]

Hi peeps

I'm in need of help with platys as my fish shop will tell me anything! I have two platys the same size, both male (a red platy and a rainbow? platy) they get on fine. I also have a third platy, a red wagtail, thats slightly bigger but male. He keeps charging at the other two and butting them and chasing them away, they seem bothered buy this. I have a 30ltr tank with water from shop and 25 degrees. (biorb) The fish shop said three males ok, but im worried that this bigger bully will harm the other two! please help! I have only one other fish, a male in tank.
thanks

 

[BigJim]

Welcome to AA!

Is there any cover in the tank? The "out of sight, out of mind" principle applies to fish. If you give them some tall plants to hide in, it should help with the aggression.

 

[tintin]

hi thanks for welcome! I have some grass (artificial) but i will get some more altho there are lots of hiding places. For the moment ihave put the bully into a breeding tank so he gets used to the other but cant harm them. will he settle down aventually or is he just a rogue fish? he wes nipping the others earlier today. rest of fish much happier now too.

 

[tintin]

ps - there is a cover on with light

 

[johnarthur]

The pet shop was full of barnyard byproducts. In an aquarium that small, it can be difficult to avoid antisocial behavior, especially when it's all guys. The plants will help, and so will some female company, but you may wind up over crowding. Can you trade two of the males for females?

 

[BigJim]

Can you trade two of the males for females?

This is an option, but you'd have to be prepared to deal with fry.

 

[johnarthur]

That's good motivation for getting a house full of aquariums.

In addition, it's probably not very kind to segregate fish by gender. What do you think?

 

[Bigzmey]

Actually, you need to have 3:1, female to male ratio for liveberears to keep the genders mixed. Which equals to lots of babies. It is perfectly OK to keep females only. They will be happy and live longer. If you have one female and several males she will produce babies non-stop and die fast from exhaustion. It is also perfectly OK to keep male only guppies. Males of other livebearears, mollies, platies, swords will often show aggression to each other and females. If you want to keep males only, the best way is to get bunch of them. There will be typically one dominant male, but his attention will be "diluted" among several males.

My advice is:
1) try to return the aggressive male to the shop.
2) if you can't, get 2 more platy males. You should be OK in terms of bio-load. Just do 25% PWC every week, your fish will thanks for that.

 

[tintin]

thanks peeps - extreemley grateful..!

got another tank and put mr angry in there with three women. he is fine now, and have had some babies altho I think most have now been eaten as I couldnt catch them..:-(

My original ank with all males and one siamese fighter is now peaceful. Until this morning, I noticed something wierd. Platys seem listless and lie on bottom of tank. When hat swim they judder and wobble about. then sink to bottom again. FIghter seems fine, altho his fin looks a little split. Is this right?

 

[tintin]

ps - red coral platy is missing a scale

 

[tintin]

update - the red coral platy is now dead

please help!