Platies Striking Out On Their Own.

[PrairieSunflower]

Earlier today, my two platies (Gwen cream colored, Rosie orange) moved out of the community tank and into their own tank. At first, they swam close to each other for the first few hours... which is something they didn't ever do before as each of them had their own best buddy who was a guppy.

Well... they've warmed up to their new surroundings and... well Gwen has become rather... bossy and grumpy! She has claimed the back left corner as her own (from top to bottom) and gets quite upset if Rosie comes into her space.... possible big pregnancy hormones going on I'm thinking....

Is that a normal platy hierarchy in a new tank behavior or more related to pregnancy? Here is a picture of them today... you can see a clear size difference as well.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I added one of my juvenile guppies in with them to draw them out of hanging in the back so much. Must of done a lot to relax them as Gwen started popping out babies after that!

So far, 5 in my shrimp tank (which I can't see at all), 5 in my breeder net and unknown number still at large in the tank. Neither platy or the little guppy are making any moves to chase or eat them so I think they will be fine there.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

One of the babies.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I have finally managed to gather all my babies together in one place and have taken a picture so I could count them. Total 23 babies!

 

[PrairieSunflower]

About 3-4 of my babies are starting to get the odd black blotch, mostly towards the tails. Exciting since I have no idea who my female would have mated with (at the LFS of course), I hope there are some surprise colors to come out and they don't all look similar to mom.