Chasing eachother to death?

[KimS]

Can fish chase each other to death? I have two male swordtails that, for a few weeks now, have been chasing each other endlessly. All water parameters are good (0, 0, .10) with weekly pwc. My tank is a 72 gallon with 10 various platy, 4 cory, and a snowball pleco.

Today I find the one that did most of the chasing hiding in a plant with some ragged fins and the one being chased now the aggressor also with ragged fins. Do you think they had a king of the tank battle? They have plenty of room, hiding places, and females (7) to, um, chase. What's their deal?

 

[Jason7894561230]

Are they both male? Becasuse if a male is in with another male it is asking for trouble you could put 1 male to 2 females and the other fish will eat the fry.

 

[KimS]

The chasers are my two biggest males. I have three males and seven females.

 

[Jason7894561230]

Maybe take one out or just wait and see if they stop

 

[fearlessfisch]

I think I killed a male dwarf gourami once by putting him in a 55 with two other male gouramis. They weren't violently aggressive toward him like I have seen some angels be, but the two larger ones just would not give him any territory and were constantly chasing and pecking at him. I planned to move him to a 30 gallon by himself to give him some relief, but I woke up the next day to find him dead. I think the harassment killed him, and I felt terrible that I didn't move him immediately.

 

[BigJim]

Male swordtails are territorial. It's best to keep one per tank. I really don't know how big of a tank you need to keep two males.