Restarting 15 Gallon Aquarium

[FTM22]

I picked up 4 male platies today and they seem to love their new home! Also, they have taken the attention of my aggressive guppy off of the injured one, but I'm not sure the injured one will recover as he is missing a large portion of his tail. The aggressive guppy is still a puzzle to me and he keeps nipping at the platies even though they are bigger than he is, but I don't think he will harm them much.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Would it be possible to move the injured one to a smaller tank where you can do water changes every day or every other day? I hope he heals up.

 

[FTM22]

No, I don't have any smaller tanks

 I'm on vacation right now and left my dad in charge of the fish, and he says they are all doing well except the injured one is just laying on the bottom and will probably die.

 

[FTM22]

The injured guppy and a platt passed while I was on vacation. My dad said he thinks the platy also died due to aggression and the water parameters were fine when I got back. Even now the dominant guppy has forced the smaller one into a little territory behind the filter. He comes out to eat and never gets much before getting chased back behind it. The platies have also set up a pecking order with peaking aggression around feeding time. Every fish in the tank is male, which may be the cause of all this aggression. Any ideas on how to curb it are welcome, otherwise I might ditch the livebearer plan and make it a rainbowfish tank.

 

[TallTree01]

So the ich is gone? Yay!
Hope everything goes smoothly for you.

 

[Ninjouzata]

What sort of decor do you have in the tank? Maybe more hiding places and plants would help calm them down. Adding females might help but then you'll be overrun with fry.

 

[FTM22]

Yeah it's all clear! Aggression is the only issue now but even the ones that are getting picked on are active, I'm just worried they will get cut and infected or too stressed.

 

[FTM22]

Also, it has a large fake log, a small piece of driftwood, and a couple fake plants so not all that many hiding places. More cover might help, but the hiding guppy died now I think he starved as he was awfully skinny. This is why I need a little 5g, but my dad won't let me. With only one guppy left (who thinks he's a cichlid), I think I won't replace the others and will just get more Platies because they are only really aggressive when I feed them!

 

[Ninjouzata]

I'm so sorry for your loss. 

 
Might be a good idea to just let him be the only guppy, or take him back and hope for a more peaceful one. Hope he leaves the platies alone.

 

[FTM22]

They're a lot bigger so even though he bugs them a little I doubt he will ever do any real damage. I'll probably just get a bunch of platies now and leave him as the only one.

 

[FTM22]

The tank is doing great now! The guppy is now mellow with no other guppies to compete with so everything is running smoothly. After my track meet tomorrow I might pick up a couple more platies and/or a honey gourami.

 

[Ninjouzata]

That's good to hear! Be sure to post pics

 

[FTM22]

My little brother's track meet and my own both went late, so I couldn't pick up any new fish today, but here's a few pictures. The platies are named Keith, Kenny, and Kevin and the guppy is named Pug (Gup spelled backwards). Pug has really grown and I think he's too pretty to give back even though he's now the only guppy I can have. Sorry, my phone doesn't take great pictures and they don't like to pose for me. Also, a FTS is too many KB.

 

[FTM22]

Also, where might I find a rubber lip pleco, I really want one, but they don't sell them at my normal to fish stores and I doubt they do at the Milwuakee one either. I looked online and found them for $6 but $40 shipping and I'm not willing to pay that, so does anybody know of a website that sells them without ridiculous shipping costs?

 

[Ninjouzata]

I thought I saw them in PetSmart, have you already checked there? Maybe ask one of your LFS if they can order them in for you?