Male platy is a pedophile!

[barbiya]

My male platy is driving me crazy! (Not to mention the female platies)
Last night, I decided my fry were big enough for the 30 gallon tank (they're about 3/4" long). So, I moved them all over, and at first, it was very cute, they all schooled with the big male, scared of their new surroundings. But, after a quick trip to the store, I came home to find him trying to mate with them!

He picks out one to torment for a while, then moves on to another. I feel so badly for the babies- they had the run of the tank before, used to swim around and have fun, now they're hiding in various places around the tank, always on the lookout for "him".

I plan to move him into a 10 gal with bottom dwellers for company, but I was wondering if anybody else has had a male who acted like this. I've had to separate him from the girls before for being such a nuisance. Please tell me I'm not the only one!

P.S. Maybe I'm worrying too much! My 7 year old son said "he's just doing what fish do, mom"!

 

[TorPeteO]

Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people have had that happen to them. He's just trying to pass on his genes to future generations, it happens a lot, I'm sure. That being said, you don't have to put up with him. If the little girlies look more stressed than they were, take him out, by all means.

 

[Xavier]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA your fish should be named R. kelly. if he does succeed in impregnating them they might die because they're young and probably cant handle being pregnant. i would buy him two mature female of his kind.

 

[barbiya]

Thanks for the replies! I do feel the little girls are being stressed out by him, I've been checking on them periodically during the day. He's still hovering around them. You'd think he'd have to rest sometime!

I won't get him anymore females, as he did the same thing to the first 2 females. I separated them a few months back. He's just going to go in the 10 gal where the other females are, but I'll move them over to the 30. I just didn't want to move so many into the big tank at once. But, since they're mostly little, I don't think it should be too drastic of a change on the bioload.