Mickey Mouse Platy

[Sica]

We bought a 10 gallon tank 5 months ago for our 3 year old daughter. We bought 2 Mickey Mouse Platy's, not knowing if they were male or female. I noticed after a few months that one was chasing the other and would not leave it alone. I researched and found out how to tell them apart and realized we had a male and a female and that it was recommended to have 2 females for 1 male so he doesn't chase her to death. The female we had is very small compared to the male. Anyway, we bought another female, she was about the same size as the male. He then left the small female alone and he swam with the new female all the time. It's been just a few weeks since we bought the new female, and 3 days ago I found some fry in the tank. I have no clue if the small female gave birth to them or if we had bought a pregnant female. I separated the fry in a floating fish hatchery to protect them. Now the male attacks the small female if she comes out of hiding and won't leave her alone, yet he still swims with the new female all the time. As soon as he sees the small one he attacks her until she hides again. She misses feeding sometimes and I wonder why he would pick on her. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? I don't want him to kill her Thank you in advance!

 

[creeker]

Sometimes otherwise peaceful fish show aggression towards certain tankmates. I had an aggressive female platy that had to be re-homed. I would re-home your male. Also, you need to think about what you're going to do with the fry. Your tank will be overpopulated when they grow up. I'm currently having that problem myself in my platy tank. Too many plants in there has lead to a high fry survival rate. I cut way back on the plants, but still need to find some takers for the platies.

 

[Gilli]

They say Platys are community fish but ive never found this to be the case , but then ive never kept just females only males because I didnt want my tank over run with fry which would get eaten - it doesnt rest easy with me to see the little guys go one by one. Ive tried keeping them twice and always ended up with a real bully which eventually had to be banished to my hospital tank with a few shrimp for company so I wouldnt keep them any more for this reason. its a shame because they do have some lovely colours and strains.

 

[Akasha72]

I'm agreeing with Gilli somewhat. The majority of my platies are peaceful. I have two males in there and they have their moments and have a bit of a scrap but they work it out for themselves. I have one problem female though. She's greedy, she's a bully, she's evil to my apple snail and she's also the biggest fish in the tank so no other fish try and take her on. I've looked into re-homing her many times - she's also been threatened with the death jug - although I don't really mean it!

If it was me I'd also look at re-homing the male. I have noticed my two males have decided amongst themselves which are their girls. My red wag-pintail has the sunset females to himself and the green, yellow and black male has the blue tuxedo's to himself. If either try it on with the others females that's when the fighting starts.

My platies are dropping 20-30 fry every 8 weeks or so so before long you will be in the same position. By re-homing the male you solve both issues

Hope you work something out anyway

 

[Gilli]

she's also been threatened with the death jug - although I don't really mean it!

 

[Sica]

Thanks everyone for your help! I will have to re-home my male if he keeps bullying this female. As for the fry (there are 13), I will be posting to my Facebook friends and other pages that I have free MM Platy's to whoever would like 1,2 or 3