Myah Posted August 23, 2007 Report Share Posted August 23, 2007 I have a nice deep red female platty that seems to have problems with some of the males in my tank. My plattys consist of 1 cream coloured male, 2 orange females, the red one and 4 baby platty and the male is quite nasty in the way that he chases the red one round. He's as good as gold with the others, just not her. The other male that picks on her is my white siamese fighter. They are in a tank 1200x600x600 with several other male and female fish but none of them attack her like these 2. Any ideas why they may be doing this? Am setting up a smaller tank to put her and a few others in but am waiting for it to cycle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianab Posted August 23, 2007 Report Share Posted August 23, 2007 How are you cycling the new tank? It should be fine to start the cycle by putting a platy in there? Fish seem to develop their own pecking order, and often someone is on the bottom of the list, sometimes more fish actually improves things by spreading the aggresion (no one fish gets chased all the time). Other times you just need to seperate them and re-arrange the fish in your tanks. Cheers Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myah Posted August 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2007 Hi Ian, thanks for your reply. Have now put platy, swordtail male and female and 2 clown loaches in smaller tank. Am still learning about tropical fish and love reading all the topics posted on AFNZ, but have to disagree with you about no one fish getting picked on all the time. This little red female platy was so harrassed by the two males she would only come out of hiding when I would feed the others or dart out of one hiding place to get to another. The cream platy male had even damaged her fins slightly. Again thanks for your reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted August 23, 2007 Report Share Posted August 23, 2007 Live bearers, like platys, need a sex ratio of 3 females at least to each male to spread aggression. Otherwise the males will eventually kill her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianab Posted August 24, 2007 Report Share Posted August 24, 2007 Yeah.. by 'more fish spreading aggression' I mean when you have a big group. And like Caryl suggests it's also better to keep more females than males especially with live bearers. If you had your 2 males with 4 or more females there would still be alot of chasing going on, but not concentrated on one unfortunate fish. Anyway, seperating them was the best option Cheers Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted August 24, 2007 Report Share Posted August 24, 2007 If you've already got one established tank then there shouldn't be any need to cycle a new tank. You could always 'loan' the pushy male to me, my fish will teach him a thing or two... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myah Posted August 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2007 Thanks for your replies. I love reading them. Very helpful and a lot of the time I have a bit of a giggle at some of the replies/topics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keri Anne Posted August 24, 2007 Report Share Posted August 24, 2007 You shouldn't have platies and swardtails together as they will cross breed :evil: as the results of this perticular crossbreed are used in cancer reserch you may want to re-think that a little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myah Posted August 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2007 Hi again, thanks for the info on platys and swordtails, have now separated them and put the swordtails back in other tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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