I screwed up with my platies

[jvis0606]

All this time I thought I had some females, because they have nice bellies, but I was looking really carefully at them recently because they have gotten really vicious with each other and I have 4 males!

I really didn't want to add any more platies to the tank, but I guess I am going to need to put females in there, they are so nasty to each other. Suggestions??

 

[K-Holed]

Hmmm ... platties aren't usually nasty towards each other in my experience. the only thing I've seen resembling this behaviour in platies is when the male harrasses the female. Have a look under the fish and see if they have a gonopodium. Then you'll know for sure, one way or the other.

 

[JacopoFishy]

I agree. Just check their anal fins to be sure. If you do decide to add more fish, the best ratio is three or four females to every male. although, that would be a great deal of fish. uh-oh. umm.....if you only add a small number of females, they may get harrassed a lot and die of exhaustion from fleeing from the males.


This is a toughie. best of luck.

 

[KittenAndHerFish]

If you do have four males a few more options are just to take them back to the pet store OR build another tank, put two of the males in the new tank and add females to both.

I have platies in my main tank and unfortunately have a lower female to male ratio than I would like but only one of my males is very aggressive with the females so I have decided to let them be as the other males aren't very interested in reproducing at this time (they are still fairly young.)

I hope you get everything worked out.

Kitten

 

[David]

Males should not be aggressive with each other, the only time this happens is when thy have been seperated from females for a long time and they begin to think that the other males are females. This happened to me when I had 2 male guppies and one of them turned "gay" and started trying to mate with the other one.

 

[jvis0606]

ok i am going to have to add two platies that are female soon or these guys are going to beat each other up! thx for the help. can't believe this whole time i thought they were female.

 

[TorPeteO]

If you only add two females, they males will probably beat each other up anyway, and they'll beat up the females to deathly levels. I'd say your best bet would be to bring 2-3 of your males back (it may be hard, you've probably grown attached to them, but it's for the best) and ask for females. Call your LFS and make sure it's okay, first.

If you're unsure of how to differentiate males from females, my site has a picture (and this one does, too, I think). Here's my chart so you can refer to it if you'd like.

You're going to have a lot of fry with 3 females...I've got a 1-1 ratio in platies and a 2-1 ratio in swords and I've got too much fry already. They're fun, though.

Good luck.

 

[jvis0606]

hey thanks that was really helpful. i am not sure how I would decide which ones would go....

 

[jvis0606]

K i havent had time yet to buy ladies but oh my gosh they have gotten SO aggressive!! what causes this? one guy already has scales falling off, they spin around in these vicious circles, looks like they are sucking off each others scales, it is so horrible!