Help with Male Platy Fish

[esage]

I'm a new platy owner (and fish owner in general), and I want to make sure my platies won't kill each other. My roommate and I just got two platies to keep us company in our college dorm room, and we didn't notice that they were both male until after we had gotten the tank set up. They're in a 5 gal and seem to be doing okay, but they chase each other around a lot, especially when the other is trying to eat. We've only had them for about a day, and no real damage seems to be occurring. I've done a lot of research and I can't decide if anything is wrong. They also seem to chase each other around more when the tank light is on. Any opinions?

 

[StripySnailGirl04]

Platy cannot be in a 5 gallon.
Pictures of the tank?

 

[enricosonic]

Agree that is too small a tank. And very odd that the store employee made you get two platies of the same color for compatibility reasons yet sold you two different sizes.

 

[Rocky998]

Thats weird he had you get two of the same color for "compatibility"... I would set up a 10 gallon or more and have a small group. Maybe four. When its males they will normally be aggressive to each other so things that fix this are putting lots of plants in and drift wood. Break their line of vision.

 

[carligraceee]

I'm a new platy owner (and fish owner in general), and I want to make sure my platies won't kill each other. My roommate and I just got two platies to keep us company in our college dorm room, and we didn't notice that they were both male until after we had gotten the tank set up. They're in a 5 gal and seem to be doing okay, but they chase each other around a lot, especially when the other is trying to eat. We've only had them for about a day, and no real damage seems to be occurring. I've done a lot of research and I can't decide if anything is wrong. They also seem to chase each other around more when the tank light is on. Any opinions?

Definitely either get a bigger tank or rehome them. Platies are naturally territorial, especially the males, and will not hesitate to be aggressive towards their tankmates.

Fish you can fit in a five gallon include bettas, tetras, raspboras, and certain species of livebearers like guppies.

 

[Rocky998]

Definitely either get a bigger tank or rehome them. Platies are naturally territorial, especially the males, and will not hesitate to be aggressive towards their tankmates.

Fish you can fit in a five gallon include bettas, tetras, raspboras, and certain species of livebearers like guppies.

The only thing I would do in a 5g is maybe a Killifish or Betta... 5 gallons doesnt really fit anything in. 10 gallons is where you can actually start thinking about fish.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Very normal for platies to do this, they establish a pecking order, like many fish.

Welcome to the hobby! I'm afraid the big brand stores tend to give terrible advice to new hobbyists, and then they end with incompatable fish in too small a tank, water conditions get bad, fish die, person leaves the hobby feeling like they've failed

I would love to help you sort this out, so you can have a successful tank, with happy fish! The most urgent thing is, has the tank been cycled in any way? Does it have a filter? How long was it set up before adding the fish?

A five gallon really is too small for platies, and while I'm glad you don't have any females (they produce a LOT of babies very fast, and overcrowd the tank in no time!) and male only platy tanks can work as well... two of them isn't a great number, because as you've seen, one dominates the other. I currently have three male platies together, with other fish, but no females and only the three males. They spar a bit now and then, which consists of displaying to each other and the odd bit of chasing, but since it's divided between the three of them, and it's a 57g tank with lots of plant matter for them to avoid each other, it's not a problem.

So the solutions are either to get another tank and more platies (I'd suggest 5-6 males only in a 20g tank) and carefully introduce them, monitoring them for bullying behaviour and potentially having to remove troublemakers, while also having plenty of tank decor and either real or fake plants, or, and this is probably the better suggestion;

Return the platies, keep the 5 gallon, and get a betta fish instead. They're happy to live alone in a 5 gallon, and they need to be alone - they're not called the Siamese Fighting fish for nothing! They're a solitary species. But pretty good fish for beginners, much easier to care for, and you can hand feed them I haven't kept them myself, but people say they have a real personality, like a wet pet

 

[emeraldking]

He didn't let us get two different colors, because he said they would be aggressive towards each other, so they are both red platy.

This is such a nonsense. But as you've already mentioned, he was more focused on selling those fish. Color difference won't set an aggression in platies. The employee needs to be tutored. If I notice that an employee at an lfs is making it obvious that a sale must happen, I'm gone! I wanna feel the passion for fish coming from the lfs. And not the sale itself.
Like already been mentioned by AdoraBelle Dearheart, it's a dominance thing. So, a pecking order that is at hand. This behavior will be more triggered when they're small housed. But if they're doing the pecking order thing, the dominant behavior will pass.