Problem Platy

[juliehainsworth]

I have a female platy who i bought two weeks ago she has never been pregnant (as far as I can tell) and my two males aren't interested in her at all they are more interested in my two other females who have recently both given birth to approx 30 fry each one last week and the other on Saturday. Both appear to pregnant again (even the one who gave birth on sat I think she was in process of two pregnancies as she slimmed down and then got fat again within 24 hours). The female who nobody is interested in I have been expecting to die as she just acts strange and occassionally gets terrorised by my betta. At water changes she goes besserk after and starts jumping about and swimming strange, her fins all remain up and she just skulks about the tank looking fed up. I have thought about sectioning her off as she once jumped into my breeding trap when I had my other female in it. I don't know whether to let nature take its course or to just put her out of her misery.

All my fish get regular flake, freeze dried tubifex, daphnia and bloodworms, I do a 2litre water change every couple of days and regularly clean my filter. The rest of my fish seem pretty health apart from some ich which seems to be slowly coming under control (for now).

Most of my platy fry seem fine I say most as I only had enough room in my nursery tank for 16 out of the 30 new fry the other 14 have been left to fend for themselves in my tank.

Any suggestions about what I should do with this female would be very appreciated as I don't want her to suffer but I also don't want her to be segregated from the others

 

[Annastasia]

Do you have another tank you could seperate her out to, or is this the only one?

She doesn't seem sick to me, just the odd one out. You could try sectioning her off, but they like company, so you'd have to get more Platies (probably females), and I'm not sure if your tank could handle it? Or does she look sick?

 

[juliehainsworth]

Do you have another tank you could seperate her out to, or is this the only one?

She doesn't seem sick to me, just the odd one out. You could try sectioning her off, but they like company, so you'd have to get more Platies (probably females), and I'm not sure if your tank could handle it? Or does she look sick?

She doesnt really look sick she has a slight wound where she was nipped by the betta, I could move her into my nursery tank but that doesnt have a light and I would probably risk loosing a few fry but I suppose its all part of the naturaly life of fish

 

[Annastasia]

Light isn't really important for the fish, it's more for our viewing pleasure. As long as they aren't in a pitch black room and they get some normal light, they should be okay.

How big is your nursey tank?

 

[juliehainsworth]

approx 10-12 litres, a friend was throwing it away so I claimed it for a nursery tank.

 

[Annastasia]

Hmmm, that's only about 2 gallons....I think that might be a bit too small for her to be in. You could try dividing your main tank up...how big is that?

 

[juliehainsworth]

Hmmm, that's only about 2 gallons....I think that might be a bit too small for her to be in. You could try dividing your main tank up...how big is that?

Approx 45 litres I'm not too sure! I could be completely wrong as to how much each tank holds I never did count how much I put in each sorry

 

[Annastasia]

Okay, so about 11 gallons. I'm not sure if dividing that off will help much, as she'll still be in a pretty small area. How planted is your tank? If she could perhaps get away and hide from the others more, she might be better off. Rocks and wood are also helpful.

 

[juliehainsworth]

I some bogwood, a few artificial plants and a teapot ornament (which my betta likes to lurk in) She tends to stay above a couple of the plants or sometimes goes behind them!

She recently jumped into my breeding trap (not sure why), but I just set her free in the tank

 

[karlp]

She's probably just stressed because she's being bullied by the beta, in which case more plants and caves could help her feel more secure. Particularly a thicket of tall plants like valisineria or perhaps cabomba. If she still seems unhappy, it might be worth just taking her back to the shop and see if they'll take her off you.

This is presuming that nitrites and ammonia are 0 ?

 

[juliehainsworth]

The poorly fish died during the night. Found her on her side in between the fake plants. Oh well at least she is no longer in pain.

Good news is that I still have a few fry swimming around the community tank, one nearly got ate by the beta who was hunting it quite amuzing to watch as he looked pretty miffed about missing out on a meal lol..... Also if non survive in community tank still have loads of fry being raised in nursery tank so will be able to pick out a nice female when they develop in a few months.

On even brighter side all my fish are looking healthy and happy and there have been no new cases of ich in the tank.

 

[Lexie3787]

Do you only have 2 males and 2 females? You should pick up prob 3 more females. The males will continue to harrass the two females [for some love making lol] and will prob stress them out to death. Putting more females in will lessen the chase on each individual female.

 

[juliehainsworth]

At the moment I'm quite lucky with the males they only tend to harrass the females after they have been fed live food! I have one very domminant male who chases the other one around. Unfortunately I don't have enough cash to spare at the moment to get another pair of females and last time I was in the store they were all out of the sunset platies. Must admit I quite fancy getting a couple of the orange/red with black tails and fins for my tank but not really sure about mixing the colours! I could seperate the males from females for a couple of weeks though which might ease the stress on them.

 

[Annastasia]

Yeah, I'd either seperate them or get more females. The reason you are seeing aggression is there are not enough females to go around, so they feel they have to fight for the few that are left.

You can cross colors if you want. As long as you aren't looking to breed professionally. A lot of people keep different kinds to a tank.

 

[juliehainsworth]

Nah not looking to breed professionally at the moment as dont have enough room to do that (wish I did though?)

I have to take a trip back to the store in a couple of weeks to return some fish which I have just found out arent suitable so trading them in for something else so might be able to get platys instead