All male fish?

[Undawada]

I had a rash of ich and it killed off some of my platies

I got rid of it finally, but it left me with two male platies and only one female. One of the males kept chasing the only female, who unfortunately died just today. I suspect she died of being stressed.

Anyway my Question is instead of replacing all my females, would it be OK to buy replacement males, making an all-male platy group.

My theory is there will be a higher aggression level, but there wont be any females to harrass to death. This will also serve as a form of fishy birth control

Will not having females around / not mating be bad for a male fishes health?

 

[Bignose]

I guess it is your choice to weigh forcing celibacy upon the fish versus dealing with the fry. You will be taking away a very significant part of the fish's natural behavior. But I know a lot of people who keep all male guppies and whatnot. I strive to make the fish feel a close to as they would in nature as I can, and with the exception of the Amazon molly, Poecilia formosa there are always males and female in the population.

 

[Dwarfs]

It shouldn't hurt not to have any females around The males shouldn't be aggressive with no females to fight over

 

[David]

Well there's really no need to worry about the fry, IMO, as not many will survive anyway if you don't try to save them. Only one survived from my last batch. As for the whole celibacy thing, the males will probably turn on each other in their frustration and try to mate with each other. This has been my experience with keeping only males. Only females would be a better alternative, but i guess in your case this isn't an option.

 

[gaya]

A 30g is pretty big for platties, enough space for them to get away from each other. I tried keeping two male gups in close quarters without a female and they immediately started kicking each others but. I started to have a huge fry problem and i never fished them out, but my tanks have so many plants and caves that I have a hard time keeping track of everybody. I put in a couple of angels and bye bye fry!

 

[Undawada]

Thanks all for the information.

I think I'll replace the females... I dont mind taking care of fry, and I feel it can't HURT to replicate natural conditions, wheras unnatural ones pose more risks.

Want nice happy fishes after all