Bullying Fish

[Le Sorcier]

Hi Guys,

I've got a small tank which houses 4 Platys, 3 Endlers and 3 Corys.

My Mickey Mouse Platy is constantly bullying another Platy 24/7. I believe the Mickey Mouse one is a male and my other 3 are female.

It seems it won't leave the female alone.

This happened a few weeks ago and I isolated the female in a net for a week as I thought she was going to die. She was fine after and returned to the others fine for a while. But now the bullying has started again and she is constantly in the corner, sometimes swimming vertically etc.

I don't feel I can leave them as I'm sure she will die eventually. Should I.....

A) Isolate the bully fish for a while and try again if she recovers?
B) Get rid of the bully?
C) Get rid of the female?

Thanks all.

 

[WILDER]

How many gallons is the tank.
With livebeares you have to keep 3 females to one male to stop the male chasing the female every five minutes.
I would rehome him as it sounds like he just wants one female and not interested in the others.

 

[Le Sorcier]

Small tank (30cmx30cmx30cm).

Got 3 females. The first one is the first fish I had. She is much bigger than the others. About 2 inches. The other female is a home bred youngster (nearly full grown now).

 

[Le Sorcier]

Isolated the bully fish to give the female a breather.

 

[scooterchick]

Tanks too small for that many fish, and there's nowhere to hide for the victim. Def seperate the bully, the female does sound like she's getting harrassed to the point of death and needs some respite asap. You really need to think about rehoming some of the fish or getting a bigger tank.

 

[Le Sorcier]

Yes in hindsight I realise a bigger tank was in order. If I ever had to give a newbie any advice it would be "get the biggest tank you can"!!

The misinformation I was given by a specialist tropical fish outlet was staggering!!!!

My original plan was for some Clown Loach in my tank. He said that would be fine. Of course now I know that would have been utterly ridiculous.

Eventually I plan to have another tank but in the meantime I will have to re home the Bully. A shame as he is a lovely fish.

That would leave me 3 Platys, 3 Corys and 4 Endlers. Probably still overcrowded?

Thanks