Male Platy

[SouthernCross]

Hey everyone

I've got a trio of platies - one male red and black wagtail platy, and two females - one is a yellow twinbar platy, and I think the other is what I think is called the calico colour variation, she's mostly white with an orangey-red splotch near her tail.

My problem is the male is only chasing the yellow one! And seems to do so for extended periods of time, I feel sorry for her! There's quie a few plants in there for her to hide in, and she does manage to get a break quite a bit, but I'm still a bit worried about her getting too stressed. Why isn't he going for the other female? I made sure I got two females to the male for this exact reason! Didn't realise they were picky about their ladies! Should I consider getting a third female?

Any ideas?

 

[theotheragentm]

How large is the other female? Are we positive it's a female? Some males are slow to to develop, especially in the prescence of another male? Normally I like to use 3:1 for a ratio of females to males for the first male and then 2:1 afterwards.

 

[SouthernCross]

I'm 99% sure the 'lonely' female is female! The yellow and white ones both have the same kind of fins on their stomachs - they look very different to the male to me. Also, I bought them all at the same time and the LFS assistant was careful to try and pick out two females. The lonely white one is a little bit smaller than the yellow one - but its not a hugely noticable difference, I hadn't even really noticed until I went to check so I could answer your question! Could she not be as mature or something? If there's no other explanation I might be able to take a picture later just to check...?

Maybe I might look out for another girl next time I'm out...I wasn't planning on getting any more fish any time soon, my tank started a cycle again (I obviously didn't do it right...I'm new but since then I've learnt a ton about what I should have done!) when I added this lot so I was going to wait awhile until it was, but I doubt just one fish would make a lot of difference...

Thankyou for your response

 

[xostrawberryox]

Same happened with mine, he just fancied one more than the other. When his fave one was so heavily pregnant she couldnt hardly get off of the gravel he started on the other one lol. I wouldnt say its anything to worry about particularly

 

[Barbie Bubbles]

I just think he just likes the one girl better. I have some platys that a few of the males only chase the other males (I think they're on the other team) hahaha