Platy Darts At 2 Of 3 Females.

[krysydawn]

I have 5 platies. 1 mickey mouse orange (F), 2 sunsets (F), 1 Panda (M), 1 Gold twinbar (M). Now, I just got the gold twinbar today so hes kind of not an issue right now. But my panda is nuts! He protects our MM... follows her around. I do believe shes pregnant right now. Shes squaring off. My issue is that panda refuses to let the 2 female sunsets near the MM. He darts at them. Chases them around if they get near her (mm). Is this because hes mated with the mm and is protecting her?

Ive googled the heck out of this but found nothing about "selective bullying". Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[BlueDragon]

It's sounds to me like normal Platy behaviour. They are quite rough at times with eachother. Platies seem to have this constant need to re-assert themselves with the others which usually means chasing them around a lot. I only have two females at the minuet and Micky is forever chasing Jappy around. Nothing bad ever comes of it though and they live happily together for the most part.

Your female sounds like she's getting ready to give birth if she's squaring off now. At this point the male will be able to sense this and will follow her around 'cause he wants to be the first to mate with her once she's given birth. So he'll follow her around and chase off other Fish that he thinks are 'after his girl'. Nothing bad should come of it as long as the other Fish get the message. But I'd keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't take things too seriously. If you think he's starting to get too rough, maybe starting to nip, then you might have to seperate him for a little while till your female has given birth. This should calm him down if he's getting too keen. But once your girl has given birth (and he's mated with her) he should calm down on his own. They usually do. It's not bullying as such, it's just that he's feeling quite randy! ; )

 

[krysydawn]

Haha sounds good. Thanks for your thoughts. I think what confused me most was that he seemed threatened by the females.. they cant mate with the female mm, so it seemed odd. Even now, with the male gold twinbar, he doesn't mind him.. yet. LOL Thanks again!

 

[BlueDragon]

The other females must seem to pose more of a threat to him than the other male.

It'll all make sense to him in his own randy mind X )