Fish Tank Bully

[The Booths]

Hi!

We've just set up a new tank and our local aquarium recommended platys as out first fish.

We have 5, of which we think three are female and two male. One of the males is chasing the other round the tank and traumatising him, to the extent that he's wedging himself behind the filter to escape.

Is this normal? We thought that platys were placcid fish; it's quite traumatic to watch the bullying.

Please help, we're worried that our quieter fish is going to die of stress. Is separating them the only option?

Thanks,

Zoe & Andy

 

[nessar]

Hey I have the exact same problem that developed when one of the female platies I bought turned out to be a male that hadnt developed yet.

Yes the males will fight, but it may calm down. They could be setting out a hierarchy still if you havent had them long. But if they are like mine, no it will not stop.

Provide hiding places such as plants, bogwood and coconut shells to let the weaker fish have somewhere to escape to.

Increasing the number of females so that the female to male ratio is 3:1 will help, but dont do this unless you have space and your tank is cycled. Or the fish shop will take back the bully if you ask, and then you will have a happy tank.

Please be aware that platties will breed - constantly. So if you dont want to be looking after loads of baby fish and finding them homes, not to mention buying a big tank to accomodate them, then get rid of those males altogether. Females can store sperm so they may still have babies anyway, but you wont have as many to deal with.

 

[kaivalagi]

Give it a few days for the fish to settle

As a side question do you know about cycling your tank? Have you read the beginners resource center info? it's here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

 

[The Booths]

Hi! Thanks for your replies. Think we'll give them a few days and hope they settle down, they seem to have calmed down slightly already- we had bought a tank divider in desperation, but we'd rather not have to segregate them all.

Thanks for the link to the cycling info- it's really useful. We've been to two separate aquarium shops (one to buy the tank and then another to buy the fish) and they contradicted each other with their advice, so your help is really appreciated.

Our latest concern is that the larger fish keep wedging themselves between the filter and the glass. We've had to rescue two of them, one of which appeared nearly dead. Surely this is a major design flaw in the tank if they are getting stuck? Or are they just resting- would it be normal for them to sleep behind the filter? We've got a Korall 60 Juwel Aquarium.

Think we may have under estimated how difficult this would be.

Thanks again,

Zoe & Andy

 

[kaivalagi]

Take it one step at a time and you'll be fine. Make sure you read about cycling though, you just need to know about that right now, well that and how many fish your fish can take before being over populated.

Looks like you've already seen how LFS (local fish shops) can be, the normal advice from here is that you shouldn't listen to everything they say, they don't care for the fish (most of the time) and just want to make money and will therefore tell you what will make them profit. You are best asking all your questions on a forum like this, you'll get lots of opinions and be able to see the right way forward etc from it all.

I had a Danio that continued to get stuck behind the internal filter, I am sure is was just one fish anyway, just keep an eye on things that's all you can do really.

 

[BethK]

Try putting filter foam/sponge between the back of the filter and the tank,I would also add 3 more females to the tank, even out the male/female ratio x