My platty's changed

[freshy]

Hi,
I have a yellow mickey mose platty who used to be very sweet and well behaved. I've had him for about 3 months and never had a problem with the other inhabitants in my tank. For the last couple of days he's changed completely. He's showing a lot more interest in the female which is normal I guess, but he's also turned fairly aggresive towards the other male platty. As soon as he sees him he's chasing and pecking. He's also a lot more active, swimming a little frantically all over the tank. It was like that Tweety episode when he turns into a monster after drinking a magic formula.

What's up with the "I'm gonna get your butt" attitude"? Will it go away or is this the way it's gonna be from now on? Should I keep them separate? All I have is a floating plasic maternity box. Right now I can't afford another filtered tank.

It makes me sad that they're not getting along as they used to.

My water params: ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, nitrate 20ish ppm

 

[newfishies]

it could just be natural male aggression as there is only 1 female for the 2 males to compete over...maybe a "timeout" in the breeder overnight will cool his jets...

 

[wrs]

get 3 more females so that there will be a 1:2 ratio. or if your tank will be over stocked return one of the males to the store

 

[Angry_Platy]

Timeout works wonders for my aggro male platies

 

[Sasha]

You should have two female platies for every male platy.

 

[newbie hob]

You deffinatly need to get some more females, the time out will work but the competion will always be there.

 

[freshy]

I've tried for a whole day putting him in the breeding trap but the little devil is wicked fast!
I've tried getting him with the net but the rocks, plants and decorations make it rather difficult. Any ideas on how to catch a quick-as-lightning mischiveous platy?

And I was awareof the male-female ratio but... you won't believe this but when I first got this platy... I thought it was a female!!! )
I originally had 1 orange male platty and had the idea of getting him 2 girlfriends. You can imagine my surprise when he started growing up and I discovered he had a gonopodium!!

As you can see my tank is not so big. Would 1 more female do the trick?

 

[vidiots]

I often use a large net to catch the quick ones. The trick is not to chase them with it. Chasing them only makes them more afraid and more despirate to get away. Just hold it level far enough below the surface for them to swim over. Be patient and wait for them to get used to the nets being there and they will often swim over to check it out. Once they are over the net raise it quickly to the surface. This trick doesn't work so well with a small net. Another thing that helps is I use a small fish net to feed them adult brine shrimp. After a while they are less afraid of the net and begin to associate it with food like they do you approaching the tank. If you don't feed them with brine shimp you might be able to feed them with flake food using a net to place it in the water. Over time this will help them get over their fear of the net and they wont run from it making them easier to catch provided you don't catch them in a net too often. Fear is partially instinct and partially learned behavior, and learned behavior can over come instinct.

 

[memnon]

hello

i would say this is natural compition over the female i think if you have room you should get more females

memnon