Platy

[Awol]

ive got a platy and it started to get a bit of finrot . ive been treating it in the main tank with fin rot med only have one tank gotten slightly worse. the question is have a male swordtail and he has started to chase it and like bite at the side of the platy a few of the other plats seem now to be doing this as well and the platy in question is starting to swim and dart about the tank erracticly but other times seems fine any ideas if it might be more than finrot

 

[nmonks]

Finrot is usually a symptom of an underlying problem. It sounds like you already know the problem.

How big is the tank? What sex are the fish? Livebearers should always be kept in a ratio of 2-3 females per male, and in a tank of 20 gallons or less, I'd personally never keep more than one male molly or swordtail. They're just too aggressive.

Male swordtails have a reputation for being nippy, and are best kept with robust species of similar size: plecs, silver dollars, convict cichlids, kribs, etc. Swordtails are very closely related to platies, and males may view them as potential competitors, and act aggressively.

So long as the one platy is being attacked, its finrot isn't going away. The reason he's darting about is he's scared! You will probably need to remove the swordtail.

Cheers,

Neale