Bully Fish

[Kath131]

Hi,

I have a platy had it for about a few months it's in good health, but it will not leave certain fish alone, it chases them and butts them for no apparent reason, anybody any ideas apart from having to buy another tank for one fish?

The fish it mainly bullies are two orange guppies and three silver sharks they all swim like mad to get out of bullies way, that's his name and he is blue if that's any indication. Never bothers the corries, pencil fish, black widows or striped danios and especially not my plec!

Any advice grateful of.

thanks
Kath

 

[Jonty]

What size is your tank? I'm guessing the silver sharks may be too big for it.

As for the platy, its probably a male

 

[Kath131]

What size is your tank? I'm guessing the silver sharks may be too big for it.

As for the platy, its probably a male

The tank is 61 litres the silver sharks are only small and I was told they would be ok in my size of tank with the community fish I already have. So it's looking llike I will have to part with the platy back to the fish shop? The platy picks on the guppies as well and they are the same size as he/she is.

thanks

 

[Wills]

From the sounds of it, your platty is a boy and he is looking for something to breed with and with plattys anything is fair game. One way to calm him down would be to add in some females if you search for platty sexing guides you will be able to learn how to tell the difference.

Personally I think you have bigger issues in your tank these being the bala sharks and the plec. Each of these will grow to around a foot long each, the plec is also a very very messy fish and will over pollute your tank with waste. Even though they are small now in 6 months they wont be common plecs will shoot up in size very quickly and balas will get to a decent size in 6 months as well. The recommended tank size for both bala sharks and common plecs is a 6 foot long 125 gallon tank. Though some people keep them healthy in a 5 foot tank as well. I would personally take them back if you are unable to get the bigger tank that they need.

Wills

 

[Kath131]

From the sounds of it, your platty is a boy and he is looking for something to breed with and with plattys anything is fair game. One way to calm him down would be to add in some females if you search for platty sexing guides you will be able to learn how to tell the difference.

Personally I think you have bigger issues in your tank these being the bala sharks and the plec. Each of these will grow to around a foot long each, the plec is also a very very messy fish and will over pollute your tank with waste. Even though they are small now in 6 months they wont be common plecs will shoot up in size very quickly and balas will get to a decent size in 6 months as well. The recommended tank size for both bala sharks and common plecs is a 6 foot long 125 gallon tank. Though some people keep them healthy in a 5 foot tank as well. I would personally take them back if you are unable to get the bigger tank that they need.

Wills

Thank you Wills, I appreciate your good advise, we will have to have a re-think and either buy a bigger tank, or find them a new home. At least I have a bit of time to decide. Shame, I love my plec, we haven't room for an extra tank though and the sharks are so docile. Seems the shop we bought them from didn't listen because we always ask the question are they suitable for a 61 litre tank with community fish and they said yes!

 

[Wills]

Unfortunately many shops are mainly interested in sales especially chain stores. They have staple fish that they sell regardless these are commonly balas, plecs, goldfish, neon tetras, livebearers and dwarf gourami. Sometimes the staff know very little of fish as they are just weekend workers other times its people just need the money it happens far too often.

 

[coldcazzie]

Thank you Wills, I appreciate your good advise, we will have to have a re-think and either buy a bigger tank, or find them a new home. At least I have a bit of time to decide. Shame, I love my plec, we haven't room for an extra tank though and the sharks are so docile. Seems the shop we bought them from didn't listen because we always ask the question are they suitable for a 61 litre tank with community fish and they said yes!

You can get smaller plecs that only grow to 6 inches or smaller which would be more suitable - it's just that the ones which are usually sold in fish stores happen to be the ones that can grow to 1-2 foot long!

In answer to your original question: it's probably a male platty and there's probably not much you can do with it! We had one like this years ago (talking like 14yrs back when my mum had tropicals) and the only solution we found was to rehome him to someone where he was with a LOT of much larger fish. And then he settled down. Some fish are just like that lol, just like some cats and some dogs are like that too.