Agressive Male Platy

[socosilver]

I Have a 20 gallon tank that consists of 2 female cherry barbs, 2 male platies and a female platy. One of my male platies has grown quite larger than all of the other fish. He constantly is chasing my other male platy and keeps him from eating, drives him to hide, etc. I'm not sure if this is because of his large size or if they are fighting over territory or the one female platy. I have tried changing around the decorations in the aquarium and I even tried separating Tubs (bully) from Ginger (victim) by letting Tubs swim in a large net, and Ginger seems to hang around him anyway. I can tell this is really stressing Ginger out. I am wondering if I need to get more females to even out the playing field for these two, although I'm not crazy about having tons of fry.
 
Any input is greatly appreciated!

 

[Blubble37]

I Have a 20 gallon tank that consists of 2 female cherry barbs, 2 male platies and a female platy. One of my male platies has grown quite larger than all of the other fish. He constantly is chasing my other male platy and keeps him from eating, drives him to hide, etc. I'm not sure if this is because of his large size or if they are fighting over territory or the one female platy. I have tried changing around the decorations in the aquarium and I even tried separating Tubs (bully) from Ginger (victim) by letting Tubs swim in a large net, and Ginger seems to hang around him anyway. I can tell this is really stressing Ginger out. I am wondering if I need to get more females to even out the playing field for these two, although I'm not crazy about having tons of fry.
 
Any input is greatly appreciated!

as a general rule, livebearers are 2 females to one male, although, the more females the better. putting 2 males in over one female is giving them an excuse to murder eachother.
 
unfortunately, if you cant deal with the fry, i wouldnt keep livebearers.. it may sound cruel, but maybe getting something that would eat the fry?

 

[socosilver]

unfortunately, if you cant deal with the fry, i wouldnt keep livebearers.. it may sound cruel, but maybe getting something that would eat the fry?
 

 
I was considering this myself. What are some fish that would be good in this set up?

 

[Blubble37]

 

unfortunately, if you cant deal with the fry, i wouldnt keep livebearers.. it may sound cruel, but maybe getting something that would eat the fry?
 

 
I was considering this myself. What are some fish that would be good in this set up?
 

60 litres is a relatively decent size to play with
 
with good filtration, you could have two shoals of small fish, 6 in each shoal, a shoal of ember tetras and a shoal of cardinal or neon tetras should be ok, i wouldnt go much more than that

 

[socosilver]

Thank you!
 
I will definitely get 3 more female platys and see what kind of tetras my LFS has

 

[Blubble37]

if you're going to keep the platy's i wouldnt use neon tetras, i'd go for ember tetras, they're much smaller and wouldnt tip the bioload over

 

[socosilver]

if you're going to keep the platy's i wouldnt use neon tetras, i'd go for ember tetras, they're much smaller and wouldnt tip the bioload over

 
I read somewhere that cherry barbs have been known to eat fry. do you know if this is true? I would love to give my cherry barbs some more friends of their own kind

 

[Blubble37]

i've never kept cherry barbs, i'm sorry /:

 

[socosilver]

that's alright, thanks again for your help!