Strange Platy Behavior

[FishNewbie]

Two of my male platies seem to be acting strange, or maybe they are not. Hopefully someone here can answer my questions. First I have a male mickeymouse platy, he is the largest platy i have at about 2 inches. I am guess he must be the dominant fish in the tank, he chases everyone at first it was just the females, but I have noticed he also chases after the other males, he does leave the guppys alone. Is he just letting everyone know he is the boss or is he just a "bad"boy? I also notice sometimes when he chases the females he head butts them in the body. I don't see any injury to the females so I don't think he is biting them. My next question is I have a smaller rainbow male platy who for the past day or so keeps flaring all his fins out and pointing his gounpdum (sp) straight down, he seems to be fine swims around eats, but when any of the other platys get near him he does this flare thing. Is there something wrong with him or is it some kind of mating game he is playing. Sorry still very new to fish keeping and don't want anyting to happen to them, i love to watch my platies. End of the month I am getting another 20 gallon tank to get more fish

 

[Dan-25]

not to nick your post or anything but i also have a similar thing with my red wagtail platys the biggest male will quite happily spend all day swimming with his pals and then for about half an hour he will flip and will not let any thing near it. then go back to being best buddies again.

?

 

[Xavier]

when you say "head butt" do you mean tap her underside with his mouth? and he's chasing the females to mate and chasing the males to make them stay away from the females.

 

[theotheragentm]

Male Platies want to mate. The will chase females around constantly and chase males away constantly. Try to have a male to female ratio of 1:3 and offer lots of hiding places for all fish so they feel safe.

 

[garywright1000]

Male Platies want to mate. The will chase females around constantly and chase males away constantly. Try to have a male to female ratio of 1:3 and offer lots of hiding places for all fish so they feel safe.

I seem to be getting this problem too, I've got 5 platies 2 male 3 female and 2 black mollies. One of the male Platies is always chasing the other male, it's the only thing he seems to chase in the tank, I started thinking may be he's gay, never see him after the females. The 2 black mollies a male and female seem fine they just get on with swimming around and minding their own business. I set up a webcam so I can take a look at work if you want to see it can be found here. http/garywright1000.camstreams.com/

 

[theotheragentm]

How large is the tank? It's a possibility that there isn't enough room and it causes the males to encounter each other more often. Male Platies will try to mate with males if there are no females around sometimes. I can't load the webcam for some reason. It might be the streaming format. Lots of items to block line of sight is a good idea if it hasn't been done already.