Platy "scraping" itself?

[bloodlucky]

So there is this one female who is being chased around all her life by this male and her fins are always clamped down and she barely moves much so I decided to put the male in this little confinement case, still in the tank though. It looks like this:





The male (middle) is in the cage while the other two are not.

I've noticed significant changes from the minute I enclosed the male. The female is now really happy and active except for one thing.

Both females are now "scraping" their bodies against the cage thing! I know this is a bad sign because I see fish at petco do this all the time

I just did a 50% wc today and my parameters are normal. None of the other fish are doing anything weird. Should I even be worried?

 

[bloodlucky]

They're barely doing it anymore. They've stopped inspecting it. Now they're actively swimming around the tank. Consider this case closed lol.

 

[_skyla_]

They're barely doing it anymore. They've stopped inspecting it. Now they're actively swimming around the tank. Consider this case closed lol.

Do you have enough room to add another female? That might give the girls all a break sometimes I don't know I've had to add more females because of my annoying hormonal reproducing machine male lol but it worked

 

[bloodlucky]

Do you have enough room to add another female? That might give the girls all a break sometimes I don't know I've had to add more females because of my annoying hormonal reproducing machine male lol but it worked

Unfortunately not for now. The tank itself is completely overstocked. Luckily I'm getting a 40 gallon in about 2 months, where all the fish will be moved and the amount of females will significantly in m/f ratio. Also, there is a platy fry in the tank currently. Hopefully it's a female

I assumed 1:2 was a good ratio. Looks like it didn't work out too well

 

[Ursi]

I had this same problem when I had a 1m:2f ratio but mine are mollies. I now have 8f to 1m, they are so much happier with less grief off the male

 

[bloodlucky]

I had this same problem when I had a 1m:2f ratio but mine are mollies. I now have 8f to 1m, they are so much happier with less grief off the male

I will definitely do that. Then I get a better chance of having fry as well

 

[Wroberson]

Most of the time if a fish scapes against a leaf, rock or other decoration, they have a itch that's bothering them. Sometimes they have ich. So, when you see a fish scrape, you should check for white spots on the fish. If there are none, the fish is just relieving itself of an itch.

 

[bloodlucky]

Actually some pretty weird things are happening now

Both platys occasionally clamp their fins and swim in one spot, then start swimming around actively again. I'm getting worried. They're usually 100% active! Maybe it's because I separated the male.

Also the guppy is doing the same. She is the only guppy in the tank, but she stays around the top and barely moves location. She is always gently moving her tail back and forth to fight the current, but for now, none of the female livebearers are active. They just seem really really depressed (but not sick).

Meanwhile, the male is still in his enclosure actively ramming his nose against the glass in any desperate attempt to get out so he can go back to harassing all the other fish in the tank. So he is 100% normal

All the neons are fine, as usual. Active and always swimming around. Same with the platy fry

 

[Ursi]

Have you tested your water?