Platy bullies

[emeraldking]

Thank you. How do I know if it's a dominance thing?

Well, dominance is mostly something to let other fish know who's in control in the tank. In other words, a pecking order. Once all know their place in the hierarchy in the tank, the chasing will pass. No fish will be hurt in that case.

@emeraldking, the 2 'victims' might have oviposters. Could they be being pursued for fry?

They could be possible, but not really assumable. For females don't tend to chase other females so often when no fry are born yet. But males will chase such females.

 

[Emberly.rose]

@emeraldking, the 2 'victims' might have oviposters. Could they be being pursued for fry?

Sorry, what's an oviposter? I thought initially they were pregnant but they seem to have been like that for over a month. One and haven't got much bigger. Thank you

 

[Emberly.rose]

Thank you all for your help, I have removed the two aggressive ones into my smaller tank for now and straight away my other two came out of hiding. I hope I have made the right decision though they weren't very happy in their new tank!

 

[Avel1896]

Ovipositer is a tiny organ tube-like that females use to lay their fry.

 

[Emberly.rose]

Well, dominance is mostly something to let other fish know who's in control in the tank. In other words, a pecking order. Once all know their place in the hierarchy in the tank, the chasing will pass. No fish will be hurt in that case.

Thank you, how long does that normally take? They have been together for about 6 weeks now

 

[Emberly.rose]

Ovipositer is a tiny organ tube-like that females use to lay their fry.

Thank you, I have so much to learn!

 

[Avel1896]

Thank you, I have so much to learn!

You're welcome.

 

[Avel1896]

If you see this organ on a female with a very round/protruding belly, it means that egg/fry laying is imminent or just done.

 

[seannx]

A couple of months ago I added 4 female and 2 male platys to my community fish tank. As a group they were very aggressive towards other smaller fish, the biggest food hogs in the aquarium, ate my littlest cherry and blue shrimp, and even went after my mystery snails. It looked like they were trying to eat their antenna.

After a month. I gave a group of 1 male and 2 females to my daughter for her community fish tank. All of the other fish are bigger than the platys, but she recently lost her mystery snail, and I’m wondering if they played a role. The remaining 3 continued the same problem behaviors, so I gave them back to the fish store.

I had been looking forward to them breeding, but considering how they disrupted the harmonious community fish, am glad they had no babies. I hope you have better luck.