Are My Platys Attacking Eachother!?!?!?!?!?

[oogaboogaman]

So i have 2 sunburst platys and just got two new gold twin bar platys. the moments i let them swim freely in the tank one of the sunburst's bumped up against the side of the new twin bar, i think face first.
A few hours later i witnessed this again.

What is going on? they are supposed to be friendly fish and if it is a mating thing why would it start so quickly

thank you

 

[K-Holed]

So i have 2 sunburst platys and just got two new gold twin bar platys. the moments i let them swim freely in the tank one of the sunburst's bumped up against the side of the new twin bar, i think face first.
A few hours later i witnessed this again.

What is going on? they are supposed to be friendly fish and if it is a mating thing why would it start so quickly

thank you

What you have described could well be mating behaviour. In my experience, most livebearers don't need much excuse to get it on with one another.

 

[J1mbo]

yea my male sailfin mollie is a horny little b@stard.

And i've seen that behavior its as if there kissing lol

 

[oogaboogaman]

Is this normal though the moment they get into the tank? i guess they were getting aklamated for a little bit so it could have saw something in the new fish that apparently is exciting.
how long does it take for a platy to give birth to the fry?

 

[oogaboogaman]

If this is a mating thing and she does give birth, I don have java moss in the tank growing on a rock, the only problem is that my frogs in the tank stay in the moss almost all the time. any sugestions?

 

[OldMan47]

oogaboogaman, livebearers do not lay eggs so there is no urgency about being ready for fry. Most livebearers, which includes mollies, swords, guppies and platies, take about 4 weeks to have any fry after a mating. That gives you plenty of time to get things arranged the way you want them. The other half of the story is that any or all of the females that you have may have been pregnant when you got them so you don't really know the timing that well. Its entirely possible that one could have been having fry when you got it.

 

[shelaghfishface]

you dont say if they are males or females, if there are more males than females, then you will have to up the number of females to lessen the risk of harrasment by the males, i have been watching the same type of behaviour with 1 male 1 female for the past 2 days-think he must really fancy her because there are plenty to choose from
have you decided what you will do with the babies if you do get them, which lets face it is almost a certainty with platys,and they can have 30+ fry each month ( 6 drops from one fertlization)
shelagh xxx

 

[K-Holed]

When/if a female gets pregnant, it becomes very obvious. She will become MUCH more rounded and develop a dark patch near her underside.

If you want to keep the offspring (which is nice to begin with, until you become over run with the little buggers), then you'll want to make preperations for seperating the mother from the rest of the tank mates, before she gives birth. In addition to this, you need to make sure that the babies are safe from the mother too. If you're not expecting it, it's quite a shock to see a female give birth to her young, swing round and eat them herself. fortunately, as the babies aren't swimming imediatly after they have been born, they tend to drop to the bottom of the aquarium. You're either going to want to make sure there's plenty of places for them to hide or cover the bottom of the birthing area with marbles, so that the mother can't get to them. you can also buy breeding traps which server the same purpose.