Bullying?

[(GTV)Chris]

Hi

I recently put in two Guppies amongst a red mickey mouse platty and a Silver Mollie.
The Mollie is female and the Platty is male. I also have about 7 amall fry from the Mollie.
The two Guppies are male and seem to get on, but the Platty is chasing the little Guppies all over the tank, it's relentless.
I feel very sorry for them and wonder what to do?
Will this die down after he's shown them who's boss?


Also..... can Plattys mate with Mollies...some of the fry are very dark in colour

 

[sylvia]

No platies cannot mate with mollies but guppies can. The darker color is probably just a gene that they inherited that the parents were carrying.

The platy's behaviour will probably change. Adding 2 females, however, would help as he'd stop chasing the guppies and the 2 females would have his attentions divided between them so it wouldn't be too stressful. If you don't have room for 2 more female platies, don't add any. Adding just one is bound to result in the female's death. Add as many females as possible. 3-4 is ideal.

edit: spelling

 

[WILDER]

As long as the platys isn't nipping the guppies they should be fine, he showing them who's the boss, and it should calm down in time.

 

[(GTV)Chris]

Thanks,

I'll keep my eye on the little tear away.
The only problem on adding two more females would be the resulting fry.
I don't know what to do with the Mollie fry? They are very small at the moment but when fully grown it would overstock the tank


Cheers

Chris

 

[sylvia]

You can give/sell the fry to your LFS.

 

[a1wonder]

Most fish stores in my area will not take fry in you can still seperate them and put the patty in a breeding trap though and just dispose of the fry. What I did to remove some of the aggression was break the line of site in the tank by adding either real of fake tall plants. Not only did the tank look better but more of the fish got along. What is the size of your tank?