Aggressive Behavior

[DebraAustin]

Hi,

I just added a new fish to my tank about 24 hours ago. Prior to that I only had my two dwarf platys. They were the best of buddies, following each other around and just being friends. They felt very comfortable because they would spend time together and time apart. Since introducing the cory, which is larger than either of them the larger of the two platys has been picking on the smaller. What can I do to help them adapt to the new fish, because there are more coming, probably another cory and then a couple other platys or mollies. I don't want my tiny little platy to get injured or worse killed by the larger of the two. Does the larger one feel threatened? I thought these fish were supposed to be quite docile. They are both female. I made sure of that when I bought them, because I don't have room for a fry tank.

Also, I can't seem to judge how much food to give them at each feeding. How do you know you've fed them enough? Whenever I go near the tank the act like they are starving. I know it is supposed to be what they eat in three minutes, but sometimes they don't eat at the same speed or time. Now I have a larger fish to feed and the smaller ones used to eat a little and then play around some and then eat the rest off the floor. I felt comfortable with that, but now the cory will be eating a lot of the food off the floor, plus the cory hasn't figured out when I'm feeding, yet, so he just misses out except for the few shrimp pellets I put in. Is that going to be enough for him?

This is almost harder than raising children!

Debra

 

[qwikimpss]

What size is your tank? One cory won't work too well, they should be in groups of at least 4.

 

[DebraAustin]

What size is your tank? One cory won't work too well, they should be in groups of at least 4.

I have a ten gallon tank and plan to get another cory to be with the one I already have. I just didn't know that I needed more than one until I had bought it. I'll get a friend for it as soon as possible. Unfortunately I don't have room for four of them. It may not be perfect conditions, but the tank is in a very quiet spot in my office (inhome variety), so there won't be any extra stress on them to cause them to want to shoal. I'm more concerned about my platy's behaviour. Can you shed any light on that?

Debra

 

[qwikimpss]

Thats odd because Platies are very peaceful. Is the smaller one pregnant. This is a good possiblilty, most livebearers you bring home from the store will be pregnant. If she is the older one may be trying to force her to pop a fry or two out for a treat, I've seen this done.

 

[clareriley]

are they male and female? if they are then she might be gravid (pregnant) and he is harrassing her for sex haha and she dont want it and so on and so on. the ratio for platys is 2 female to a male although I would always have 3 f to 1 m. anyways. if its 2 males then they might have now matured and fighting for dominence... see if they are male and female.

 

[Trance2006]

Your fish will always seem like they are dying of stravation. Those fish have becomed accustomed to easy food. Fish spend their days grazing on tid bits of food. The food which we give them are rich and meaty and robust, and it's easy for them to "find" it.

 

[DebraAustin]

I definitely have two females and I don't think the smaller one is pregnant as she doesn't look any larger around for her size than the other one, but maybe she is and it just isn't showing much... I'll just have to keep an eye on them today and see how they are doing. The smaller one wants to follow the larger one around, but she won't have any of that right now. Before the cory she didn't mind it at all. Go figure!

Debra

 

[millyspook]

I have a similar problem with my platys. I have one male and two females and the male is picking on one of the females. I got them all at the same time and the male and female seem to have paired off and are growing quite nicely, but the other female keeps getting chased around the tank as soon as she appears from hiding and is quite a bit smaller than the other two.

I am hoping to get some more fish soon, do you think this will sort the balance of the tank out. Maybe the aggresive male will calm down once I get some more fish in it?

Any advise would be gratefully received.

I am getting very annoyed with my bully male platy!