Platy Female Ill? Sick? Breathing Heavily

[Whyistheskyblue]

Hello all,
 
I currently have a ten gallon (37.8 L) with 2 female platies and 1 male platy. Today, my mickey mouse female platy have developed some symptons. First, she's constantly hiding, laying at the bottom, or when she does swim she swims for a little bit and goes back into hiding. She has been getting picked on by one of my female red wag platy. She also is starting to breathe heavily, she is eating though. My water parameters are normal, its ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10, temperature is at 79 degrees Fareinheit (26.1 Celsius). So I don't know if I'm over reacting, but maybe she's hiding from getting bullied too much? Is there anything I can do, she has lots of hiding spots so maybe she's just not coming out because of the other female platy?

 

[CrazyAboutFish]

Is there any chance she could be pregnant?

 

[Whyistheskyblue]

She doesn't look like it, her stomach isn't fat.

 

[the_lock_man]

Two things that it could be.
 
The behaviour you describe is typical pre-birthing behaviour for a livebearer, and since she is in the same tank as a male, there is very little chance that she isn't pregnant. It could easily be that the other female is hanging around, waiting for the fry to be born, so she can eat them. If this is the case, then there's nothing you need to do, once she has dropped fry, she'll be back to normal.
 
The other possibility is that she is hiding away because of being bullied. Ordinarily I would say that if you were to add another couple of females, then this would reduce the bullying, but you just don't have room in your tank for that - platies should be in a bigger tank anyway.

 

[Whyistheskyblue]

Is it normal for the other female to bully her? The other female platy gets chased around by the male platy I have. But the male platy never has any interest with the mickey mouse platy female. I think for sure she's not pregnant.

 

[the_lock_man]

Platies can be like that, yes.
 
As with humans, it only takes the one, erm, shall we say encounter? Male platies have 3 thoughts 1) Can I eat it? 2) Can it eat me? 3) Can I mate with it? The chances of the female not being gravid are slim.