Female Platy Acting Strange

[Chilled Babe]

My poor female platy is looking rather sorry for herself. For the last 24 hrs she has been hiding under the bogwood with her fins close to her body. When lights did go out she did venture out for a while but just stayed still with fins still close to her body. She is one of my original fish that I cycled with (sorry but was told I could add fish to cycle) My tank just cycled last week and stats are Ammonia 0, Nitrate 0 and Nitrate 5. Ph 7.6. I also have in the tank 1 male platy, 13 baby platies and 4 guppies. Her last baby was born 4 weeks ago. Is it possible she could be pregant again!!! I can't seem to see anything physically wrong with her. ? what could be wrong with her.

 

[emjay653]

Its possible the male is harrassing her to try & breed again. You could try putting her in isolation until she looks better.

Mj

 

[Chilled Babe]

I don't have anywhere to put her. I have seen in my LFS some sort of box that you can attach to the tank would this do?

 

[emjay653]

I tend to use breeding traps for isolation purposes, although it's a bit cramped for them to swim about in.

BTW, what sex are the guppies?

Mj

 

[Chilled Babe]

The guppies are males. I must admit I have been wondering if I should take them back as they do seem to chase the platys but the male platy just chases them back. She on the other hand would rather ignore them. When I fed them this morning she did come out of hiding and looked semi happy but since I came back in at lunch time she is in hiding again. Although the male platy does chase her they do seem to be rather friendly and he is protective of her.

Is it worth taking the guppies back? Will the LFS take them back even after 2 weeks?

I must admit I do feel so sorry for her as she is lovely!

 

[emjay653]

If you like the guppies, then I'd probably suggest maybe trading in 2 or 3 of them for female guppies, as it's always better to have more females than males. (Saves the females from getting hassled too much)

If, on the other hand, you don't want any guppies then you can trade them all in.

Be warned, I've traded in some of my fish I've bought either in Glasgow or Stirling, but each time I lost some money on them, so beware of that.

Mj

 

[Chilled Babe]

Thanks for that info, I'll phone and check before I take them back. I got them at Dobbies so I'm not sure about their policy on returns. Hubby likes the guppies but I'm not sure about adding females as I don't want any more babies in the tank!

 

[emjay653]

Ive never bought from Dobbies as I find them a bit dearer than others, so can't say what their returns plicy is, but I hope you can trade them in either for something else, or even a credit note.

If you don't get either of these options, then there are a couple of shops on the Paisley Road and Paisley Road West you could try

Mj

 

[Chilled Babe]

Just been on the phone to Dobbies and they said they would take them off me but I wouldnt get my money back or a credit note or anything!! Don't know what I'm going to do now, I suppose I could take back 3 and get females but I wont go back there again. I've been to the ones in Paisley Road when I was first thinking of buying an aquarium so I'll go and check them out again.

Thanks for warning.