Killer platy???

[annielauri]

I added a few new fish this weekend and had noticed that my male platy - Mickey was always flaring around the tank and chasing EVERYONE even the mollies. I had asked for all girls, but one little sunburst cutie with freckles ended up being a boy. Well, last night he was absolutely fine and not 5 minutes later, he was floating sideways and dead. When I took him out of the tank, there was a bite mark by his little manhood and he was bleeding. Did the other male platy kill him? I never knew fish could be so mean!

I forgot to add that one of the females, who looked perfect when I got her, has a big nick on her tail now. Mickey chases her all the time too.

 

[Regen311]

What other types of fish do you have? I'm not so sure it was the platy that did this. Also, the nick could have been caused by jagged decorations or something.

 

[annielauri]

None of the decorations or anything are new, I have one of those big rocks with a few holes that has been in there from the beginning, no jagged edges.

The only fish in my tank are 3 mollies, and I had 5 platies. Now I only have 4

 

[Zagz]

Recently a couple of members have had trouble with aggressive platies. Although I have never had an aggressive platy, apparantly there are some out there. Perhaps you will have to make a decision on whether to get rid of Mickey.

 

[Regen311]

When I was first starting out, I had an insane Molly. I realized after a while it was because I had 2 males and 3 females, and the 2 fighters were the males. The only thing I knew to do then was give away the troublemaker, who was a BEAUTIFUL black lyretail molly. I gave it to a friend who had goldfish in a 10 gallon (feeder fish). I knew it wasn't teh right situation but I didn't know what else to do. It died pretty fast unfortunately... I had no idea you could take fish back to the pet store. I'd take him back. It's not worth upsetting the balance of the whole tank.

 

[m_e23]

I've actually had the problem of going over three platys at a time. Once I get over 3 platys the male and one other female in particular (the only male all others have been female) gets overly aggressive and then ends up killing off the fish to make the number three again. Its happened twice with this pair. Just recently I had a baby disappear and an adult platy eventually be killed because of being attacked after putting in two new babies from the breeder.

I posted this link before but it shows actually two females attacking (the black and yellow one is the one who just died).