Are There Any Tankmates To Steer Clear Of For Platys

[craig855s]

Hey guys im having another problem. I got 3 platys (2 female 1 male) on friday.all the 3 have spent 90% of their time since then up behind the filter where i cant see them,they dont really move,just sit there hidded, one female died on sunday so now there is just one left and the male and her stay up behind the filter, would this be because the other fish in the tank are scaring the platys and the platys dont want to come out into the rough neighbourhood? (are 5 danios and 5 harlequins rough?) or is it maybe the female trying to hide from the male in the only place that offers any protection but hes up there hounding her anyway? I dont wanna have to buy a whole bunch more females to get the male to leave my female alone but its looking to be the only option...unless i take the male back to the LFS so the female can be happy?

 

[OldMan47]

I keep platies with rasboras and neons along with angels, zebra danios, gold barbs, rainbow cichlids and the rest of my Noah's ark tank. They are fine as long as you stay away from things like tiger barbs.

 

[Panamera]

platies are the kind of fish that are pretty much good with anything that isnt 2x their size, except barbs as oldman said, and serpae tetras. what you describe sounds like stress. if you've jsut got them. then give them a few days. maybe a week. it may be stress of being handled and change in water and all.
should be alright .

 

[craig855s]

does anyone think its a must to have more than 1 female per male?

 

[OldMan47]

If you are keeping only a few platies, the male female ratio is important. Females need to decidedly outnumber the males. Platies are not gentle souls when it comes to breeding attempts and the constant attentions of the males can cause the females some serious stress. If you have a large population the stress gets spread around but in a small population you need to set up the situation to spread it around. An all male or all female tank works fine but not a mix with too few females.

 

[craig855s]

how many females wud u recomend for a 90l tank with 10 fish already in it?

 

[Panamera]

how many females wud u recomend for a 90l tank with 10 fish already in it?

depends what those 10 fish are. for example. if you have 2 males. you'd need atleast 4 females. 5 even better. the more females you have the better.
with my swords, which are pretty much the same as platties. i have 1 male and 4 females. all is good and the male could be more happy.

 

[craig855s]

danios and rasboras as per my sig..as im moving soon i dont really wanna pay out 15 quid for another 3 platys when ive got to rid of the lot in a couple of months, but i think if i dont then my female will die of stress...so i may return one to the LFS and replace with one of the same sex i have left in my tank

 

[OldMan47]

If you are working with a small tank, it would definitely be better to remove a male than add females. That is good insight on your part.

 

[Platygirl11]

In my tank I currently have 2 female platys, 1 male platy, and one dwarf gourami which I believe is male.
good? Bad? It's a 10 gal tank..

 

[Platygirl11]

The females tend to be closer to each other. If the male starts following one of them they try to keep a distance from him.