Blue Platy Bully

[Kath131]

Hi, I have two platys one female, one male, I bought two females on advise from my LFS to distract the male platy from bullying my other fish(but one of the females died unfortunately). He seems to dislike my bara sharks and they are quite big and just scoot off from the platy and are very pleasant coy fish, he does sometimes have a go at my black widows. I don't want my other fish getting stressed, any advice please i did try changing the tank ornaments and plants round to make him think it was a different tank but that didn't work. It is so ironic, cos of all the fish I have had from the beginning of my interest 8/9 months ago, so many of my fish died but he has survived and I haven't the heart to dispose of him.

Also my othe problem milky water, have had a water test today and it is not good, so on the advice of the LFS did a 50% water change and added stress treatment. It is clearer but still slightly milky any ideas please on how to prevent this I did lose 6 fish a few weeks ago through the same problem.

Help!
thank you.
Kath

 

[Harlequins]

Hi Kath

What size tank have you got and what fish are in there?

Milky water is usually associated with new tank set up,but it sounds has though you have been running it for while...

What maintenance do you do on your tank?,w/c,cleaning etc? Have you changed your filter media recently?

If your water stats aren't good,it's possible the platy could have been poisoned by ammonia or nitrite.

What were your readings?

 

[Kath131]

Hi Kath

What size tank have you got and what fish are in there?

Milky water is usually associated with new tank set up,but it sounds has though you have been running it for while...

What maintenance do you do on your tank?,w/c,cleaning etc? Have you changed your filter media recently?

If your water stats aren't good,it's possible the platy could have been poisoned by ammonia or nitrite.

What were your readings?

Yipee my tank this morning is perfect, I will be honest my husband admitted to cleaning the filter under the tapwater which i had asked him not to do but he couldn't resist cos he said it was really dirty, this of course we now know upsets everything that we had established in the tank and it won't happen again, or he goes, the husband not the fish. The readings we had done at the LFS and he just showed us the colours dark red and dark blue!! We are taking another water test back to him next week on his advice after we have done another water change, are we doing right?

The platy has always been a devil with the other fish which are 3 gouramis, 2 danios, 2 black widows, 1 plec, two platy, 3 bala sharks, 4 swordtails, 2 pencil fish. I always ask before buying if they will mix with my fish which are all community fish, so I was told. So hopefully have solved the water problem, their is only this platy, who we have named bully, to try to sort his behaviour out any suggestions please. We really can't afford another tank nor have we the room, we have upgraded to a 160 litre tank to accommodate the plec already.

We part change water and clean the filter every two weeks, is this correct? How often do you change the sponges in the filter please advise. We also replace living plants regularly to help with nutrients and oxygen.
thanks again Harlequin.
Kath

 

[Harlequins]

Hi kath

I'm glad your tank has settled,only wash filter media in used tank water,you don't need to change the media until its falling apart and then only a bit at a time,never all at once.with a plec its probably good to rinse media gently in tank water when you do a w/c.Plecs are very messy,proper poo machines.

Has regard with your platy not really sure,platys can crossbreed with swordtails...

Ideally i would advise buying your own test kit,a lot use api liquid test kit,these kits can be picked up on ebay for less than £20.has your tank stands at the moment its more than likely you will need to do regular w/c to keep ammonia/nitrite down while the filter media builds up its bacteria again.

And on a downer note- Bala sharks get too big for your tank,these can grow to 14 inches long,and the plec if a common can get bigger,you may want to re-think these and get some smaller fish,just my opinion

Good luck,let us know how you go

 

[Kath131]

Hi kath

I'm glad your tank has settled,only wash filter media in used tank water,you don't need to change the media until its falling apart and then only a bit at a time,never all at once.with a plec its probably good to rinse media gently in tank water when you do a w/c.Plecs are very messy,proper poo machines.

Has regard with your platy not really sure,platys can crossbreed with swordtails...

Ideally i would advise buying your own test kit,a lot use api liquid test kit,these kits can be picked up on ebay for less than £20.has your tank stands at the moment its more than likely you will need to do regular w/c to keep ammonia/nitrite down while the filter media builds up its bacteria again.

And on a downer note- Bala sharks get too big for your tank,these can grow to 14 inches long,and the plec if a common can get bigger,you may want to re-think these and get some smaller fish,just my opinion

Good luck,let us know how you go

 

[Kath131]

Hi kath

I'm glad your tank has settled,only wash filter media in used tank water,you don't need to change the media until its falling apart and then only a bit at a time,never all at once.with a plec its probably good to rinse media gently in tank water when you do a w/c.Plecs are very messy,proper poo machines.

Has regard with your platy not really sure,platys can crossbreed with swordtails...

Ideally i would advise buying your own test kit,a lot use api liquid test kit,these kits can be picked up on ebay for less than £20.has your tank stands at the moment its more than likely you will need to do regular w/c to keep ammonia/nitrite down while the filter media builds up its bacteria again.

And on a downer note- Bala sharks get too big for your tank,these can grow to 14 inches long,and the plec if a common can get bigger,you may want to re-think these and get some smaller fish,just my opinion

Good luck,let us know how you go

Thank you I will certainly take your advice. As for the Bala sharks I will see how big they get then find them a new home, same applies to plec although we are fond of them. You learn as you go in this hobby don't you, unfortunately it does sometimes cause casulaties, lost one fish today, so we are watching the water closely now.

regards
Kath

 

[Harlequins]

Sorry to hear you lost a fish,i would do a 50% w/c if you haven't done so already.

Large fish like plecs & bala sharks may end up having stunted growth being in a smaller tank than they should have,the body may stop growing but the internal organs carry on growing and the fish may end up dieing from it.

Have big are they at the moment?

Is the platy still bullying?