Is My Fish Just A Jerk?

[Nightstar99]

We have three platies. One male and two females. We moved them from a 17 litre tank to a 54 litre tank a few weeks ago.

• Female #1 (Mo) is the largest fish in the tank.
• Female # 2 (Tallulah) is the smallest fish in the tank. She is also the cleverest and most entertaining.
• Male platy (Mitzy, we thought he was a girl) is the second biggest fish. He is generally pretty laid back but seems to have become rather depressed lately and spends a lot of time sitting inside a hollow Angkor Wat head.

They all used to get on fine, but as Mo got larger and larger she gradually became more and more mean. Mostly she takes her meanness out on Tallulah. Some days she is fine all day, but other times Tallulah gets chased all over the tank. Sometimes Mo will swim the entire length of the tank to chomp at her. She bullies Mitzy too but he doesnt seem that bothered by it and doesnt really try and get away. We've seen him trying to mate with her once or twice so maybe its like an S&M thing for him, he has never shown any interest in Tallulah.

Tallulah really has to race to get away from Mo, though in general she is a cheerful little soul and tries not to let Mo's behaviour get her down, I can tell that some days she does get quite stressed. Tallulah is small and cute, whereas Mo is a great big fat, horrible fish who is just really mean to her, especially when food is concerned.

We've just added a lot more plants and some wood, to give them all places to hide. Mitzy now spends less time in his Angkor Wat head and Mo is less likely to encounter Tallulah but she is still pretty mean.

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IS MO JUST A MEAN FISH?

IS THERE ANY WAY I CAN DISCIPLINE MO?

WE WANT TO ADD GUPPIES, WILL MO'S BEHAVIOUR IMPROVE?

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Thanks.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Sounds quite normal for Platties, which is why I always say 3-foot tank minimum, ideally with plants/ornaments to break up line of sight. This will give the bullied fish a chance to find some respite.

Guppies does not sound a good idea, their tails will be nipped to shreads.

 

[MBOU]

Jeeez... i cant even vote on that... its not the poor fishs fault, its normal platy behaviour. Better off maybe having a couple more if anything...

Dread to think how you'd plan to discipline a fish!?!?!?!?

 

[TotallyTropical]

I have to say, it does seem pretty normal with Platies. I don't have ANY idea how to discipline a fish, but this behavior used to happen all of the time, except my huge, a bit under 2" male Platy would chase my male Swordtail, and his old mate that passed away, all over the tank. (RIP Blade and Fleck ) But with only Kuhli Loaches and his new mate in the tank with him, he's become more laid back.

 

[Mauigirl]

Jeeez... i cant even vote on that... its not the poor fishs fault, its normal platy behaviour. Better off maybe having a couple more if anything...

Dread to think how you'd plan to discipline a fish!?!?!?!?

+1,000,000
Normal fish antics .

 

[BlueDragon]

Yep, I have two female Platies and Micky is forever chasing Jappy around. Nipping at her and generally just playing bully. But Jappy doesn't care all that much, I mean she'll go off in the huff sometimes but that's all. And to be fair Jappy sometimes bullies the Guppies too, so they're both as bad as eachother really. No one gets hurt though, it's always harmless.

Me too would like to know how to go about diciplining a Fish 0_o

 

[FishBlast]

Platies and swordies seem to fight for dominance.
I have 2 female swordies and 1 male.
One of the females is a blood red albino (Bee). She is the meanest fish I have and the alpha female too. She kicks even my swordie male's butt.
The other is a female lyretail (Eris), she's bigger than Bee. She gets bullied by Bee sometimes, other times she just goes around Bee like a cat around its master's legs. They sometimes are civilized, but one night it was pretty funny when I turned the lights on and Eris being so sleepy, drifted with the current and landed with her face into Bee's, then they got scared of each other and ran each to a corner LOL!
And then there's the swordie male (Cracker). Used to have a bit of nerve trying to put Bee to respect, but kept failing. Now he just won't bother even to court a female. He's the punching bag of the females and Bee seems to want him to stay only next to her. If Cracker goes near Eris, she'll beat the scales off of him. Eris will also sometimes hand Cracker's sword to him. Poor guy, just can't catch a break.

 

[Nightstar99]

Just to draw a conclusion to this. We added three new guppies, and the bully female platy (Mo) is like a different fish. Most of her aggressive behaviour has gone and she now tends to hang around on her own at the back of the tank with the plants. She doesnt seem to have any interest in the other fish, though she still has the odd go at Tallulah.

The three male guppies and the male and female platy seem to be getting on pretty well and swim together a little sometimes. The guppies are playful and a fun addition to the tank.

 

[crazyforcordoras]

She probably wanted friends!