1 Female Platy Being Bullied

[othello]

Hi (or should this be Dear Agony Aunt!)
I am very concerned about 1 of my female platies - she is a tuxedo. I initially had 5 females and 2 males, but this one female was being constantly harrassed by one of the males, the other just ignored her. The 1 male who is the bully is always hanging around another tuxedo female. The other male has his own companion, the other 2 females just swim around pretty much spinisters; although there has been a little loving going on as they have both given birth. Well now back to the unattractive girl.. I bought another male, also a tuxedo in a romantic gesture of matchmaking.. now he is bullying her, the poor little thing is chased from one end of the tank to the other!! I have another tank with 2 females and 1 male, he didn't like her either!! Does anyone else have these problems? Is this just life?? Should I buy some perfume for her??

 

[lilfishie]

if she is pregnant he could be pressuring her to drop the fry so he can eat them, is there anyway you could seperate him or her to give her a break?

 

[othello]

oh!! are all men b@st@rds, even in the fish world!!
She is not pregnant - they won't go near her!!
I can separate the males for a while give the females a break.
thanks for the advice.

 

[lilfishie]

how many males have you got in both tanks? maybe split the sexes for a while

 

[othello]

Yes I will give that a try.
I will have 4 males in one tank - and 1 little fry I hope it is alright, it has lots of places to hide and has survived a couple of female betta's - I think it's chances are better in the smaller tank than in the larger community tank.
I think the females are going to be very happy but males are not!!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I would advise either splitting the males from the females, or just having one male to your females. At the bare minimum you should have 2females per male, but i think 3 is much better, and more than 3females per male is excellent.