Favorite Female?

[webcat5]

I have four male Platties and six females, the only problem is that all the males like the same female and totally ignore the other five.
I am hoping this will change so that the poor little girl can stop hiding in the corner all the time

Could it be that the other females are already prego or does that matter to the males?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I think it matters to a certain extent; my male guppy will try to mate with the pregnant ones from time to time although he certainly is much more interested in the ones that aern't and i suspect it is the same thing with your male.
Also, it has been proven that guppys have strong social lives with each other and a particular male will have his favorite females as will the females only want to mate with certain males.
I wouldn't worry about it as long as he isn't actually hurting her/trying to bite her fins in any way; i would just stock up on some more plants/ornements/rocks to make some more hiding places in the tank for the fish to help make it a more stress-free enviroment for them- having hiding places will mean if any fish gets picked on too much it will always have somwhere to hide in .

 

[webcat5]

The tank that houses my Platties has lots of hiding places and is fully planted.(fry need places to hide)

This female is the smallest and I am hoping that the attention of 4 males does not stress her too much.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The only other thing i can add then is that you have an awful lot of males- it should be 2 females to 1 male minimum. Get the right amount of genders and the problem should cure itself.

 

[webcat5]

I only need 2 more females to make it, 2 to 1.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yes but the 1male per 2female is realy the MINIMUM recommendation; when i say minimum, it rarely ever works out if you have less females than that- even so i would recommend adding an extra female for every male you get after 2 males as fish aern't exactly great at sharing and more than often you'll end up with a male who has no females, leading him to fight more or just become very stressed.

Or alternatively you could just drop and rehome one of your males which would help the situation out alot- somtimes you just have to do whats best for the fish and not always what you would like.

 

[MAM]

One of the reasons for this 2:1 ratio is that male livebearers can be pretty persistent, even when the female is pregnant. There's a reason livebearers are known as the rabbits of the aquarium world. So by having multiple females for a male to bother, then no ONE female gets all the attention and gets stressed out. If you have room you could try adding a couple more females, or getting rid of a male as mentioned. However, I had two males with one female at one time, and the males NEVER went near the female (a little disappointing actually, but thats a whole other story). One thing to do is just keep an eye on her. Watch for signs of stress. You may end up having to rehome someone, whether its some of the males or that female. I had a male molly that was constantly harassed by the other fish. He was so stressed by it that he would wedge himself up behind the box filter. He started to get very skinny and stressed out. So I moved him to another tank where he could be king of the castle. Just keep an eye on her.

Is she a new addition to the tank by chance? Or did you get everyone basically at the same time?

 

[webcat5]

Is she a new addition to the tank by chance? Or did you get everyone basically at the same time?

Everyone came home at the same time.
I have to drive for 3 hours just to get to a pet store, so I end up going about once every third month.