platy chasing and scarying other platy

[panboy]

i have 4 platies, and 3 of them are always in a group, but the other one is hiding most of the times in a plant or something... i thought it was stressed but after watching them for 5 min, i see the rejected fish try to swim with the others but one of them always chases him raelly quick and scares him away. thats when he hides, and about a couple min later, he tries to swim with them again. i feel really bad even though its kinda funny how they are, ive never seen this.

anyone know what i can do to stop it? or if its gonna effect the rejected fish? thanks

 

[Aqua_Princess64]

hmmm... This might be a stupid idea but if you get 1 more platy maybe it will make friends with the platy outcast. I know it sounds really stupid, but if you bring 1 platy home with no friends maybe it will make friends with the one that has no friends.

 

[MAM]

are these two males or females? (the chaser and the chasee) what are your other platys? i had two males, and at first they did fine together. then after a couple of months one began to just harass the other to no end, the poor thing spent most of his days hiding in the plants or in the cave. then i learned that you should have a ratio of two females per male to keep them happy. i didn't have much room left in the tank at the time so i got one female. that made it worse, as they both wanted her and the harassmetn got worse. since i didn't have room to buy more females to even things out, i ended up taking back to the lfs. check and see what all you have..................................

 

[panboy]

thanks for the info.
how do u tell if they are male or female, i heard the female is larger and there "butt" fin is spread out compared to a pointed males one. is this correct?
if it is true, i have 2 males and 2 females. yet im not exactly sure.

also.... how often do they ahve fry? i read somehwere every month or so............ if so im gonna go crazy with like 500 extra fish in a year, lol. thanks

 

[MAM]

yeah, sort of. look at their belly (butt) fins, the females will have a short rounded one, the males will have a long narrow one that kind of hangs down (a gonopodium). i know theres a site somewhere that shows this in case youre a graphic person like me, but off the top of my head i don't remember what it is, hopefully someone else does.

livebearers are like rabbits, they're always prego or having fry, at least in most cases. seems they have fry about every 30-60 days or so. if you don't want them, then when she has some, just let them be, most will get eaten before you even know about them (unless you catch her in the act like i did with my molly yesterday, babies everywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). or you can catch them and keep them in another tank or a breed box/net until they get big enough, sometimes your lfs will buy them from you or at least take them off your hands.

hope this helps a little