Peaceful Or Semi-aggressive....

[Strawbeary]

I have been doing some research into what I will want to put into my new tank. I have two Platy fish and want to keep them and don't want them harassed by other fish. My question is when I'm reading about different kinds of fish they will list them as "Peaceful," then talk about them in general, and then state that they are "Semi-aggressive" but list them as "Community Fish." I'm confused..... if these fish are kept with a group of their own kind will they be passive and not semi-aggressive or it's a crap shoot if they will get along with the Platy's and behave.

So far I know that my Platy's would be ok with Swordtails, and Guppies but beyond that I don't want any fin nippers or harassers. I'm waiting to see if my Blue Painted Platy will have her babies and they live before I get any more fish for my tank, so I'm in no hurry to buy. I also just started they cycle on my tank (fishless) so I'm also in no hurry because of that.

I went to the local pet store and looked into Molly's, Mystery Snails, Rubber Lipped Pleco an Aquatic Frog, Tetra's, Danios and Rasboras. Some of the mentioned fish, like the Tetra..Danios..Rasboras..Molly..are listed as Peaceful, Community Fish and Semi-Aggressive all at the same time and the source of my confusion. I know many of them have to be kept in groups of at least 6, but I don't want a pack of bullies in my tank...lol...if that is what they are. I was looking at the Pleco and Snails as crud eaters and I love frogs so I would love to have one! I'm still doing research on the fish so I don't know all about them but knowing if they truly are peaceful or Semi-Aggressive would help a lot.

Any pointers on this would be welcome. Thanks..

 

[penguin22]

Unfortunatly I would stay away from the frog as I think they grow big and once big would eat your fish (I have never had 1 though). Tetras danios and rasboras are all pretty peaceful, so too are mollies but you will always get get the odd midly aggressive fish. In my opinion male platys can be pretty aggresive, as for the snails they are fine and I dont know about the rubber lipped pleck. Dont quote my opinions as gospel as I havent kept all of these fish.

 

[Strawbeary]

Unfortunatly I would stay away from the frog as I think they grow big and once big would eat your fish (I have never had 1 though). Tetras danios and rasboras are all pretty peaceful, so too are mollies but you will always get get the odd midly aggressive fish. In my opinion male platys can be pretty aggresive, as for the snails they are fine and I dont know about the rubber lipped pleck. Dont quote my opinions as gospel as I havent kept all of these fish.

I don't think I will get the frog, but it would be nice. I was reading up on them and they seem pretty hard to keep as they have pretty specific conditions. I will just have to get my frog fix with a Tree Frog in a reptile habitat one of these days . When I got my Platy's I got one male and like two female. One female died leaving just the one male and one female and the male could care less for the female, they are never even in the same part of the tank together. The female that is Prego, she came that way from the store. Of the two she is the nutty one... .

 

[dwarfgourami]

With tetras, it depends on the species- blind cave tetras, serpae, cochu's and lemon tetras are often fin nippers, neons, cardinals and black phantoms tend to be peaceful. Bucktooth tetras are miniature piranhas! Harlequin rasboras are peaceful.

 

[ibbledibble]

So far I know that my Platy's would be ok with Swordtails, and Guppies but beyond that I don't want any fin nippers or harassers. I'm waiting to see if my Blue Painted Platy will have her babies and they live before I get any more fish for my tank, so I'm in no hurry to buy. I also just started they cycle on my tank (fishless) so I'm also in no hurry because of that.
I went to the local pet store and looked into Molly's, Mystery Snails, Rubber Lipped Pleco an Aquatic Frog, Tetra's, Danios and Rasboras. Some of the mentioned fish, like the Tetra..Danios..Rasboras..Molly..are listed as Peaceful, Community Fish and Semi-Aggressive all at the same time and the source of my confusion. I know many of them have to be kept in groups of at least 6, but I don't want a pack of bullies in my tank...lol...if that is what they are. I was looking at the Pleco and Snails as crud eaters and I love frogs so I would love to have one! I'm still doing research on the fish so I don't know all about them but knowing if they truly are peaceful or Semi-Aggressive would help a lot.
Any pointers on this would be welcome. Thanks..

you don't say what size tank you now have? this could have some bearing on what you keep. for example the rubber lipped pleco, while MUCH smaller than a common can still grow to about 7 inches and could be too big for some sizes of tank, a bristlenose is an alternative if the rubber lipped pleco is too large. Mine does a great job of clearing algae in my 2ft tank, its spotless!
if you want to continue breeding your platy's then i would not keep them with tetra's danio's or rasboras, as most of your fry will be gobbled up! if you are not that bothered about getting the fry then as dwarfgourami said neon, cardinal and black phantom tetras and Harlequin rasboras would all be acceptable. i would recommend keeping them in the large groups you mentioned as they feel much more secure and happier in a group. so maybe pick one type of tetra and one type of rasbora for example and have at least 6 of each type, rather than getting 3 of this 3 of that 3 of the other etc obviously your tank size will affect your stocking amounts.

Unfortunatly I would stay away from the frog as I think they grow big and once big would eat your fish (I have never had 1 though).

there are 2 types of aquatic frog. the type that grow large and eat your fish are called African clawed frogs, the other type are called African dwarf frogs and these are FINE with community fish. i used to have a few in my community tank with guppies, corys, neons, khuli's, harlequins, bristlenoses and a ram and had no problems with aggression with any of them. the African dwarf frogs stayed pretty much the same size the entire time i had them. and were incredibly cute. i would definitely recommend getting a couple. i did not find them difficult to look after. i feed nutrafin max livebearer food (the small size of the flakes is appreciated by all the small fish i had) some of which sinks quickly if put into a current and some of which floats. the guppies would eat the stuff that stayed on the surface, the neons, harlequins and ram would eat stuff in the middle of the tank and the frogs and khuli would munch on the food that settled on the bottom so worked really well! the frogs look so cute "pouncing" on the little bits of food

 

[rowdyburns21]

african dwarf frogs are cool, make sure they have webbed feet and hands, and are not albino coloured as these are the african clawed frogs

 

[Strawbeary]

"you don't say what size tank you now have? this could have some bearing on what you keep. for example the rubber lipped pleco, while MUCH smaller than a common can still grow to about 7 inches and could be too big for some sizes of tank, a bristlenose is an alternative if the rubber lipped pleco is too large. Mine does a great job of clearing algae in my 2ft tank, its spotless! "





Thanks for the info. I get conflicting data when I looked up the Rubber Pleco, most of what I was reading said it didn't get very big at all, good to know about alternatives. Currently I just have the two Platy's in a small starter tank but they will be moving to a large 30 gallon hex tank when it is done cycling. I have a floating breeding thing for my prego platy. I want to keep and raise the fry but if it does not work out I want to explore other options of stocking my tank. I would like to have an interesting diversity to the tank to make it interesting.

Thanks for the posts about the behaviors of some of the other fish I was looking at . I really love my Platy's, they are so cute and want them to have friends but friends who will treat them well.

 

[ibbledibble]

"you don't say what size tank you now have? this could have some bearing on what you keep. for example the rubber lipped pleco, while MUCH smaller than a common can still grow to about 7 inches and could be too big for some sizes of tank, a bristlenose is an alternative if the rubber lipped pleco is too large. Mine does a great job of clearing algae in my 2ft tank, its spotless! "





Thanks for the info. I get conflicting data when I looked up the Rubber Pleco, most of what I was reading said it didn't get very big at all, good to know about alternatives. Currently I just have the two Platy's in a small starter tank but they will be moving to a large 30 gallon hex tank when it is done cycling. I have a floating breeding thing for my prego platy. I want to keep and raise the fry but if it does not work out I want to explore other options of stocking my tank. I would like to have an interesting diversity to the tank to make it interesting.

Thanks for the posts about the behaviors of some of the other fish I was looking at . I really love my Platy's, they are so cute and want them to have friends but friends who will treat them well.

if you keep the starter tank up and running, you could always use it as a fry tank. just transfer the female over when she is heavily pregnant and looks about ready to pop. then when the fry are born, transfer the mum back into the main tank. the breeding traps are not ideal as they are quite small and can be confining for the mothers not good for long periods of time, but they can be handy for emergencies. also fry raised in a breeding trap will not grow as quickly as those just in a tank.

 

[Musho3210]

i would stay clear of messing with the female during pregnancies, you dont want to stress her out. Just load the tank with fake or real plants, fry will find a way to survive, platies and stuff arent really super fry hunters...

 

[ibbledibble]

i would stay clear of messing with the female during pregnancies, you dont want to stress her out. Just load the tank with fake or real plants, fry will find a way to survive, platies and stuff arent really super fry hunters...

what i was refering to was strawberry said that s/he wanted to add other fish, examples mentioned in the first post were

Tetra..Danios..Rasboras.

although most of the fry would survive in a tank with just platies, IME tetras etc tend to gobble them up as quickly as possible, even in a well planted tank