Lovesick Platty

[gmerck]

Hi! I am Gerry. I live in Nebraska and have a small aquariam. My little orange Platty and big white Betta were best friends. When the Betta hid in his "house," the Platty would tap on the house to get the Betta to come out and play. Recently the Betta got sick. I removed it from the tank and my Platty became frantic! It was extremely agitated for the 3 days that the Betta was separated, and seemed to he looking for the Betta. When the Betta returned to the tank, they went straight to each other and the Platty instantly calmed down. After several days, the Betta died and the Platty nearly lost its mind! He was zipping all around the tank and dive bombing the Betta house. I bought a new Betta (blue), and another Platty for company, but no deal! The Platty continues to vigorously avoid the other fish and returns to the house to tap on the roof. This is breaking my heart. I know this fish misses his buddy. what can I do? I have another white Betta. Should I put the Platty with it? I know that it is not really good to switch tanks like that.

Gerry

 

[KittyKat]

As long as both tanks are filtered with adequately mature filtration, there should be no problem moving the fish from one tank to another. If the pH and water hardness is almost identical in the two tanks, then you should be able to move the fish straight over. If they are different, drip acclimatise at a suitable rate. If you don't know what the pH and hardness are, then either buy liquid test kits to test them or just drip acclimatise slowly.

Just out of interest, what are the sexes of the old platy and the new platy? How big are the tanks?

 

[colleen0309]

So sorry to hear of your loss. Hope your platty gets over his grief soon. Welcome to the forum

 

[gmerck]

Gosh! I haven't a clue what sex either Platty is. The Betta that died was male. Do you think the lovesick Platty could be female? Maybe it is the sex and not the species?
Gerry

 

[Dieses Madchen]

If you have pictures of your platys, we could possibly tell you the sex, if the picture is clear enough. I have male and female platys so I am very familiar with the difference

 

[Blubble37]

and

 

[willowstwin]

omg thats so sad and yet an adorable story at the same time

I hope your platy can find love again.... maybe try her with the betta, but be wary of the betta being aggressive... Ive never owned a betta but I know each fish has its own personality.

 

[KittyKat]

I haven't a clue what sex either Platty is. The Betta that died was male. Do you think the lovesick Platty could be female? Maybe it is the sex and not the species?

You need to figure out how to sex them fast then: males have gonopodiums, females have anal fins. The original problem is not the result of the sex of the fish, but you may start getting problems if you have one male and one female platy in the same tank.

As for the platy, have you tried it with the same coloured fish as the original Betta was?

 

[willowstwin]

ooh yes.. I never thought about that... if the new platy is a male and your current platy is a female, then I think (as with all other livebearers) that you need a higher ratio of females to males, and as such she might be terrified?

+1 with trying another fish of the same colour