Platty turned aggresive

[freshy]

Hi guys,

I need some insight on platty behaviour. I own 3 mickey mouse plattys. I've had them for about 3 months. 2 boys and 1 girl. I know, I know, I should've considered male-female ratio right? The thing is that silly me mistook a male for a female at the store and didn't realize I had made a mistake until a month later (I know ) ). The three of them had been quite on good terms. An ocassional pecking and chasing, but nothing serious.

My problem goes like this: my original orange male platty had been pecking and chasing yellow male platty for about 3 weeks or so. Nothing serious, I thought he got a little territorial about the girl and yellow platty seemed to have come to terms with being chased around a bit.

Everything was going on as usual, unitl this afternoon... I think orange's chasing might have gotten a little out of hand here because yellow platty (usually the peaceful one) has now a ripped dorsal fin and is going after orange platty like crazy, as soon as he sees him. He flares his fins and all, it's pretty scary. I mean predator-like. It was like watching Dr. Jekyll turn into Mr. Hyde. Orange platty is wicked fast so he hasn't been hurt, but I'm worried he might be in danger since yellow p. is bigger.

I don't own another fishtank, all I've got is one of those plastic floating maternity boxes. Do you think it wise to separate them for a while? Is my yellow p. going through some kind of phase that will eventually go away or is this 'I'm gonna get your butt' behaviour permanent? If so... that would sadden me... they seemed to be good friends

Thank you for any advice and happy new year to all!

 

[JoBodude]

i would seperate them for a while

it would stress the yellow one out from chasing so much

 

[freshy]

Update:

The strangest thing happened... I had intended to put orange platty in the maternity box and let yellow platty chill for a while but as soon as I turned the lights of to take off the lid... tha chasing stopped! I mean instantly, magic-like and the 3 plattys started shoaling together and even went back to their original roles with orange chasing yellow this time (only in a much more tranquil way)

I have no idea what this is about. Could mating have anything to do with it?

 

[iobre8ks]

if they are different sex then it sure could.

 

[freshy]

update #2:

ok I've been watching these fellows and it seems to me that yellow p. is finally showing some interest in platty girl (before yesterday he used to be very shy about it) and is trying to get romantic with her. At the same time he got fed up with orange p. and now he it looks like he hates his guts. Aggresiveness increases when I turn the lights on (God knows why ) so for the moment I'm keeping them off.

In the morning I tried putting orange p. (the "victim") in the maternity box to keep him away from unwanted attacks but it only seemed to stress the heck outta him, feeling "trapped" and with yellow p. around nudging the box, so I let him out.